PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA
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Mary Robinson urged to send UN investigators to Aceh immediately
2 June 2001
TAPOL has today written to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to press the Indonesian Government to allow two UN investigators to visit Aceh immediately.
In its letter to Mary Robinson, TAPOL said that reports from both sides in the armed conflict acknowledge that there have been a large number of deaths as a result of operations in Central Aceh. However, while the Indonesian side say that all the victims were members of GAM, thereby justifying the killings, the GAM spokesman in the region says that only four of the victims were their members and all the others were ordinary citizens. Either way, the killings cannot be justified but with very different versions from the two sides, an outside investigation is clearly called for, the letter stated.
Latest reports say that the number of bodies discovered in Central Aceh now stands at 62 .
TAPOL recalled that in November last year, three UN special rapporteurs, for torture, extrajudicial killings and violence against women, as well as the Secretary-General's special representative on human rights defenders and the working group on arbitrary detention, took a highly significant initiative by writing to the Indonesian government. However, nothing resulted from their move.
The letter to Mary Robinson stated:
1. The mounting death toll which is now approaching an average of ten a day (not counting the high death toll from the massacre(s) in Central Aceh).
2. A deliberate campaign of terror by the police and the security forces in Aceh directed against human rights and humanitarian NGOs, which have included the murder last December of three workers of RATA, the NGO helping torture victims, the murder in March of a member of the Joint Monitoring Committee on Security Affairs together with his lawyer and driver, moves to bring to trial officials of Kontras-Aceh (the Commission on the Disappeared and Victims of Violence), an attack on the Banda Aceh office of the National Human Rights Commission, and most recently, an recent attack on the office of Yayasan Anak Bangsa, an NGO that helps abandoned children and children in the IDP camps.
It therefore urged Mary Robinson to press for investigations in Aceh by Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and Hina Jilani, the Secretary-General's Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders.
TAPOL also wrote today to the British Government calling for its support for these investigations.
Carmel Budiardjo of TAPOL said:
"At the talks about Aceh held in Geneva this weekend, the Indonesian side rejected proposals to make the monitoring committees in Aceh more effective. They clearly want to get on with their military operations without being observed or criticised by local monitors or the international community for widespread human rights violations accompanying their actions."TAPOL also called for pressure from Britain's partners in the EU to press for these investigations. In conclusion, the letter to the British Government said:
'While we continue to urge you to press the Indonesian authorities to halt the military operations commenced in May this year, our immediate call is for the British Government to press the Jakarta authorities to allow investigations by these two UN special rapporteurs. Acehnese people are being killed as a frightening rate and it is up to the international community to take immediate action to intervene on behalf of the defenceless victims.'
ENDS
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