Villagers tell of Aceh atrocity

BANDA ACEH - Villagers in remote Mapa Mamplam say Indonesian troops massacred at least eight youths, one as young as 11, as hostilities in the war against separatist rebels intensify.

A BBC report quoted a number of witnesses to the killings.

One said the Army took the young males into a rice field. Another said he saw the killings take place.

"They asked the victims to stand in front of the rice fields and then they killed them one by one in the back and then they threw their bodies to the rice field."

Indonesia launched a military attack on the breakaway province this week after negotiations to end the conflict fell over in Kyoto, Japan.

At least eight villagers are said to have been killed. The youngest was 11, another 13, another 14, and none of the remaining five was over 20.

Villagers said all been shot in the back of the head.

Indonesia has denied killing non-combatants, although it says it has killed at least a dozen separatists.

A spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) insisted no separatists had been killed and accused the military of murdering nearly 50 civilians.

The military said it was considering imposing night curfews in areas hit by the heaviest clashes.

In Jakarta, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda went on the defensive in the face of international concern over the military's biggest offensive in decades.

He told foreign envoys that Indonesia's territorial integrity was at stake over Aceh, the country's northernmost province, on the tip of Sumatra.

"GAM forces are moving continuously, and we are tracking them today," said senior military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Achmad Yani Basuki.

"Our attacks are not on specific areas, but wherever we find GAM."

Casualty claims have been hotly disputed ever since GAM began fighting for independence in 1976.

One hospital official in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, said that since Monday the military had brought in nine dead bodies riddled with bullets. He said they looked like civilians.

The military said a district rebel commander had surrendered on Wednesday, coinciding with the bloodiest clashes since President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared martial law.

They said Teuku Ali Said, rebel chief of a district in western Aceh, gave himself up to Indonesian soldiers. Last week a more senior rebel commander defected.

Officials said schools were still being burned down in this resource-rich province, with about 250 schools torched since Monday, affecting 60,000 students.

Troops have been told to shoot arsonists on sight.

The two sides have traded accusations over the arson.

Public transport on the main road linking Banda Aceh and the capital of neighbouring North Sumatra province has ground to a halt after attacks on vehicles, officials said.

Indonesia, which has tried and failed to defeat the rebels many times, has 45,000 troops and police in Aceh - with more to come. GAM has about 5000 fighters.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the 27-year war.

Foreign Minister Wirajuda said the rebels alone had wrecked the peace process. Mediators have said Jakarta sank talks in Tokyo aimed at saving a five-month-old peace pact, saying it had sought to impose new conditions on the rebels.

"Nothing less than the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Indonesia is at stake ... It is they who speak the language of force and terror," said Wirajuda.

"The Indonesian Government and people are doing only what are expected of us."

- REUTERS