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Aceh: UN Special Rapporteur should investigate Julok massacre

14 August 2001

In a letter to Indonesia's new minister of foreign affairs, Hassan Wirayuda, TAPOL has called on the Indonesian government to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Aribrary Killings to investigate the massacre at the Bumi Flora plantation in Julok, East Aceh, on Thursday 9 August.

While the Indonesian security forces and GAM accuse each other of carrying out the massacre, a preliminary report made public over the weekend by SIRA, Information Centre for a Referendum in Aceh, describes the killings as having been conducted by Indonesian troops, in revenge for an attack on one of their command posts near the plantation on the previous day, when GAM claims to have killed more than twenty soldiers.

According to most sources, thirty-one people were slain, including at least one small boy, when employees of the plantation were forced out of their barracks and shot in cold blood by trooops dressed in camouflage. Nine wounded survivors are now being treated in hospital.

Stressing that a only truly independent, international investigation would satisfy the domestic and international community and in particular the people of Aceh whose calls for justice have largely gone unheeded, Carmel Budiardjo of TAPOL said in her letter:

'The controversy regarding the massacre has been further aggravated by reports that, since the massacre, the security forces have conducted widespread sweepings in the area surrounding the plantation. This made it impossible formedical personnel to go there to check on whether there were more casualties, and is hampering local human rights monitors from approaching the area. Such activities by the security forces raise grave questions about their own role in the tragedy and the possibility of a cover-up by intimidating survivors and others living in the area. We have also been informed that the security forces are controlling access to the wounded survivors now being treated in hospital.'

Several senior Indonesian officials, including General Endriartono Sutarto, the army chief of staff, have said they intend to set up an investigation team. In response, Carmel Budiardjo said: 'Such a move will not inspire confidence. If, as the security forces insist, GAM forces were responsible for the killing, they of all people should want the matter to be investigated in a truly independent fashion and would be willing to call in the UN for the purpose.'

In its letter to Foreign Minister Wirayuda, TAPOL also called on him to secure the release of six representatives of GAM who are involved in the stalled negotiations on the Aceh conflict to be released. 'As someone who was intimately involved in the discussions held under the aegis of the Henri Dunant Centre, we urge you to secure the release of the GAM representatives as an essential pre-condition for the talks to continue.'

ENDS

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