INDONESIA: MILITARY AND REBELS BLAME EACH OTHER FOR MASSACRE OF 31 PEOPLE IN ACEH.

Record ID: 647282

  • Title: INDONESIA: MILITARY AND REBELS BLAME EACH OTHER FOR MASSACRE OF 31 PEOPLE IN ACEH.
  • Date: 12th August 2001
  • Summary: EAST ACEH, INDONESIA (RECENT-AUGUST 9-10, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: HOSPITAL 0.05 2. GV/MV: VARIOUS OF HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES (2 SHOTS) 0.14 3. GV: RELATIVES OF INJURED AT CORRIDOR OF HOSPITAL 0.18 4. GV/MV/CU: VARIOUS OF INJURED ON HOSPITAL BEDS WITH FAMILY (10 SHOTS) 1.13 5. STILL PHOTO OF HOSPITAL INTERIOR WITH INJURED BEING TREATED 1.18 6. VARIOUS STILL PHOTOS OF DEAD BODIES INSIDE HOSPITAL (4 SHOTS) 1.43 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: EAST ACEH, INDONESIA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8CQN327P4NI3V2YUYGP221OSG
  • Story Text: At least 31 people, including a five-year-old child,
    have been shot dead at a palm oil plantation in Indonesia's
    rebellious Aceh in a dark reminder of the grisly cycle of
    bloodshed in the province.



    Police and rebels blame each other for the killing of
    31 people at in East Aceh district, early on Thursday (August
    9).

    Ministers in President Megawati Sukarnoputri's new cabinet
    fumbled for a response to the killings.

    The fate of the resource-rich province on the northern tip
    of Sumatra island will be one of Megawati's biggest headaches
    as she prepares to receive Australia's head of state on Sunday
    (August 12).

    She met US trade Representative Robert Zoellick at the
    weekend amidst a renewed security warning from the State
    Department which forced US authorities to order some aid
    workers to leave for their own safety.

    However analysts say Megawati is unlikely to ever give in
    to independence demands.

    A police spokesman in Aceh blamed the attack on the Free
    Aceh Movement, or GAM, which has been fighting a bloody
    independence war in the resource-rich province for decades.

    The victims were plantation workers and were shot down
    when lining up for their monthly payment, he said.

    Hundreds of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in
    the province this year despite several rounds of high-level
    peace talks between Jakarta and the rebels.

    GAM has denied any involvement in the killings, blaming
    the military which it says was patrolling in a village after
    an attack on a security post in the area the previous day.

    The leading Kompas newspaper quoted GAM as saying: "They
    asked them (villagers), 'Who attacked the security post?'...

    Then they lined them up and opened fire".

    GAM leaders have warned that peace talks slated for
    September were in danger unless Megawati did not order the
    release of officials arrested last month, including the
    rebels' chief peace negotiator and its spokesman.

    Indonesian police have arrested six key Acehnese figures
    for inciting rebellion, including GAM spokesman Amni Marzuki
    and chief peace negotiator Nashiruddin Ahmad.

    Indonesia sent 1,500 troops to Aceh last month to
    reinforce about 30,000 police and soldiers already there, and
    some human rights groups fear Megawati will give the armed
    forces free rein to deal with the rebels.

    But GAM's well-armed force is believed to number in the
    thousands and even autocratic former leader Suharto was unable
    to bring them to heel.

    Aceh is also an important cog in Indonesia's sputtering
    economy, accounting for a fifth of the country's oil and gas
    exports. It is home to around four million people out of the
    country's 210 million.
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