John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers and police fired into a crowd of thousands of people returning from an Islamic prayer meeting in the north Sumatran province of Aceh, killing dozens and injuring more than 100, human rights activists said yesterday.
Some of those arrested during the incident on Wednesday morning at Idi Cut, about 950 miles north-west of Jakarta, were reportedly thrown over a bridge 15 miles away into a raging river.
The local army commander, Colonel Johnny Wahab, dismissed the claims as "idle rumours". He said the death toll was "two, possibly three" and that the 5,000 people who had gathered in Idi Cut were sympathisers of the Aceh Independence Movement.
Yacob Hamzah, director of the legal aid office in Lhokseumawe, 50 miles west of Idi Cut, said the number of casualties was still unclear. "People in the area are saying that at least 50 people were killed, dozens are missing and dozens more were injured."
One man said the religious service finished without incident at about midnight and then people started walking home quietly. "As they went past the local army base the soldiers started throwing stones. No one responded because they were too afraid to do anything.
"The soldiers then opened fire at the street lights, plunging everything into darkness. They then turned on the crowd. It all lasted about 10 minutes," he said. He claimed that soldiers had raped several women in the aftermath of the shooting.
Col Wahab admitted that the police, whom he said had been reinforced by more than 100 soldiers, opened fire. "But it was only after the people had thrown stones at the police station. The police were provoked and thought they were going to be attacked by thousands of separatists," he said.
Maimal Fidar, co-ordinator of the Forum of Aceh Non-Governmental Organisations, said there was firm evidence that some of the dozens of people arrested were thrown off a bridge near the village of Arakundo.
"People there have told me that about half an hour after they news reached them of the incident at Idi Cut they heard lots of screaming," he said. "They went outside and saw several army trucks on the bridge. They were unable to get close because soldiers blocked their way.
"When it was light the villagers found fresh human blood in five different places on the bridge. There is no way we will know how many people were thrown off the bridge because it is at least 100 metres wide and the river flows very fast."
A Western diplomat in Jakarta who is investigating the incident said he was unsure about the number of deaths. "But if you've got dozens of soldiers shooting into a crowd of thousands you are not going to have only two deaths," he said.
A separatist movement has existed in Aceh since the early 1950s, when it became apparent that the then Indonesian president, Sukarno, was not going to keep promise made in 1948 to grant the Acehnese wide-ranging autonomy.
In 1989 President Suharto ordered the army to crush the separatist movement. For nine years the province was effectively sealed off as the army waged a terror campaign. Thousands were killed, hundreds of women raped and dozens of villages burnt.
The military operations came to an end with the fall of President Suharto last May and some troops were withdrawn. But last month the army renewed its offensive as demands grew for a referendum on whether Aceh should remain in Indonesia.
Rufriadi, a lawyer in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, said that the military was trying to provoke trouble to justify its continued presence in the province, which is rich in oil and natural gas.
"The army has a huge stake in the province's economy, particularly in the oil and gas, so it can't afford to leave." He added that Idi Cut would not be an isolated incident "because the military's mindset is stuck in the past and it only has one approach to dealing with the demands for a referendum".
More than 100 students and NGO activists concluded a three-day congress yesterday in Banda Aceh at which they promised to intensify the peaceful campaign for a referendum. In one poll carried out in the city during the congress, 85 per cent of respondents favoured a referendum.