Ämne: TNI involvement in Beutong Ateuh massacre exposed

Serambi-Indonesia, 31 October 1999

A fact-finding team set up by the Aceh regional government has drawn the conclusion that the massacre of Tgk Bantaqiah and his followers which resulted in 51 deaths and five disappearances was carried out by members of the TNI (Indonesian armed forces).

'It was the TNI alone that opened fire and we found no proof that Tgk Bantaqiah and his followers had offered any resistance.' This is one of the conclusions of the fact-finding team's report. The team was headed by Infantry Colonel Syahril Bakri. Copies of the team's report were handed to

the press on Saturday, 30 October.

These findings put to rest the conflicting information about the massacre. A few days after the massacre which took place on 23 July 1999, the Indonesian army alleged that their men had opened fire after come under attack. They also claimed that they had discovered firearms, documents and a field in

which marijuana was being cultivated.

The fact-finding team's report refutes all the statements that were made by the TNI at the time. After interviewing survivors and eye witnesses during a visit to the area on 16 August, the fact-finding team is convinced that Tgk Bantaqiah was not cultivating marijuana because he had only returned to the

area three months earlier, after being released from Tanjung Gusta Prison.

'The team found no evidence that any armed movement or physical training was being organised by Tgk Bantaqiah,' the team said in its report.

The team found evidence that Tgk Bantaqiah and members of the Dayah Babul Mukarramah congregation in Blang Marandeh village, Beutong Eteuh, had been shot at, that three houses had been set on fire and that army officers looted a food stall after shooting dead the owner.

The faces of the TNI troops who approached the area had been painted black while other troops who were not disguised were keeping watch on the other side of the river. Local residents saw these troops approaching at 7am, having travelled through the territory of Korem (military command) 011 Lilawangsa; they arrived on two trucks and a helicopter.

At the moment when the troops opened fire, Tgk Bantaqiah and his congregation were reciting koranic verses. It was their habit on a Friday not to go and tend their fields or work. They had gathered in the dayah (prayer-house) where they remained until midday prayers. This is why so many people, women and children as well as men, were gathered there at the time of the attack. There was no evidence at the scene of the attack that any fighting had occurred, apart from bullet holes in the roof of the dayah and evidence of explosions in the building. The team found no evidence in Beutong Ateuh of physical training having taken place as one would expect to

find in a location where an armed group was based.

There was no evidence in the dayah of weapons having been stored because the area surrounding the dayah was a clearance where a number of trees were growing; they found no evidence that anything had been demolished.

The team found no evidence that marijuana was being grown either by Tgk Bantaqiah or his followers. Some local residents testified that there was a walky-talky in Tgk Bantaqiah's home which was located on the left, in front of the dayah, and there were several aerials at the back of the dayah. Drs

Azhari Basyar, a member of the team, said that these days, there is nothing suspicious about having a walky-talky.

The team came to the conclusion that the army's operational target was to kill Tgk Bantaqiah and his followers without first checking the accuracy of information received from military intelligence.

Having studied the sequence of events, the team concluded that the troops were the only ones to open fire and they met no resistance even though the time between the arrival of the troops and the massacre would have allowed for armed resistance to be organised.

The troops arrived on the scene at 7am and the massacre occurred at 1pm, when Friday prayers were being said. The four hours in between would have been enough for resistance to have taken place or for the people there to have fled.

The investigations led the team to conclude that the victims were all killed so as to eliminate all the witnesses. However, quite unexpectedly, five people survived without injury. All these facts, along with the reconstruction of the event, had led the team to conclude that the TNI acted in excess and in a way unbefitting to Sapta Margaist TNI members who should

act in conformity with humanitarian principles, especially towards defenceless civilians.

While in Beutong Ateuh, Colonel Syahril Basyar, the head of the team, put questions directly to the residential chief and the village head regarding the statement they signed to the effect that the local residents were delighted that Tgk Bantaqiah had been killed, but both officials who had

signed the letter denied this. They told the team that they were visited by an officer sent by Korem 011/Lilawangsa who placed before them a ready-made statement (typed on a computer) and were forced to sign. They were told

that they would be killed if they refused to do so. ''The statement was a manipulation in order to conceal a mistake that had been made,' said Azhari Basyar.

The team also said that the claim made by the TNI leadership that four firearms had been found was also a manipulation. None of the local residents had seen any weapons, they knew nothing about anyone having possessed such weapons nor who they had been confiscated from.

During their visit to Beutong Ateuh, the members of the team found a grave into which 24 corpses had been thrown and elsewhere a grave where seven bodies had been buried without Muslim burial rites having been performed

They also found 20 bodies at the bottom of ravines which were 6.2 and 7 kilometres away, on the way to Takengon. These were the bodies of persons who had been injured during the shooting at the dayah and had been driven away in trucks. It was said at the time that they were being taken to Takengon for treatment, but instead, these injured people had been

physically assaulted and their bodies thrown down ravines. The team also found a number of empty M-16 bullet casings in the area.

The team recommended that, for the sake of justice, especially in Aceh, the massacre of 51 persons and the disappearance of five others should be thoroughly investigated and those reponsible should be brought to justice.

According to Azhari Basyar, there was no need to identify the soldiers who carried out the massacre. They were just disciplined soldiers who were acting on orders from their superiors. The persons who should be held responsible for the Beutong Ateuh massacre were the 011/Korem Lilawangsa

Korem commander, the commander of the Bukit Barisan military command and the former TNI commander-in-chief Genenral Wiranto.

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TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign

111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath,

Surrey CR7 8HW, UK

Phone: 0181 771-2904 Fax: 0181 653-0322

email: tapol@gn.apc.org

Internet: www.gn.apc.org/tapol

Campaigning to expose human rights violations in

Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh

26 years - and still going strong

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