|
|
JAKARTA - Soldiers and civilians worked Friday to recover more bodies from two mass graves in Indonesia's Aceh province, where the military is fighting a separatist insurgency, officials said. Twenty bodies were recovered earlier this week at two sites in the central Aceh villages of Guci and Krueng Pase, police say. Villagers have told authorities there may be as many as 300 bodies in the graves.
The graves are believed to date to 1999 and are not connected to the current military offensive, which was launched May 19. Col. Zainuri Lubis, a national police spokesman in Jakarta, said troops and villagers were digging Friday at the graves, but he had yet to receive any reports of more bodies being found.
Villagers have accused rebels from the Free Aceh Movement of being behind the killings, police say, although there was no way to independently verify that. Bakhtiar Abdullah, a Stockholm-based spokesman for the rebels, said Thursday he was unaware of the reports but insisted the graves were the work of the military and pro-Jakarta militias, which he accused of operating in central Aceh.
"This is absurd,'' Abdullah said. "This is a stronghold of the militias. It is most likely the militias with the help of the soldiers who carried out the massacres.'' The Free Aceh Movement has been fighting for an independent state on the northern tip of Sumatra island since 1976, after Jakarta repeatedly reneged on promises made in the 1950s to give the oil- and gas-rich province wide-ranging autonomy.
More than 12,000 people have been killed in what observers have called one of the dirtiest wars in Southeast Asia. Both sides have been accused of wide-ranging rights abuses, including kidnappings, execution-style killings and burial of innocent victims in mass graves. In August 2001, authorities unearthed a grave containing 48 bodies in west Aceh. Both sides accused the other of being behind the killings.
The military launched its most recent offensive against the rebels after a cease-fire signed in December collapsed amid violations by both sides. The military insists its campaign in Aceh is progressing well and claims scores of rebels have been arrested or killed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are no reactions on this blog entry yet. Be the first one to give a reaction here!
|
|
Log in to write a reaction
|
You are not logged in to the website. You have to be logged in to write a reaction on this blog entry.
· If you already have an account, please login.
· If you have lost your password, please retrieve it.
· If you don't have an account yet, you can create one.
|
|
|
| ABOUT THIS ENTRY |
Add this blog entry to your email, your own blog, MySpace, Facebook, or whatsoever via AddThis:
|
Login if you want to receive emails for reactions on this blog entry. You will receive an update as soon as a reaction on this blog entry is posted.
|
|
Looking for e-tickets for flights in Indonesia? Here's your solution! Order your e-tickets at ticketindonesia.info.
|
| BLOG ARCHIVE |
· 2015, 28 entries
· 2014, 591 entries
· 2013, 750 entries
· 2012, 1061 entries
· 2011, 792 entries
· 2010, 644 entries
· 2009, 916 entries
· 2008, 504 entries
· 2007, 725 entries
· 2006, 1014 entries
· 2005, 723 entries
· 2004, 558 entries
· 2003, 525 entries
· 2002, 375 entries
· 2001, 162 entries
|
| POPULAR TAGS |
Automatically generated every hour
|
| EXCHANGE RATES |
@ 17 May 2018 18:12 CET
|
@ 17 May 2018 21:58 CET
|
@ 15 May 2018 08:42 CET
|
@ 07 May 2018 07:48 CET
|
@ 16 May 2018 09:18 CET
|
@ 17 May 2018 00:46 CET
|
|
| Go to 'exchange rates' |
|
