Jakarta – An Indonesian MP who had campaigned for the prosecution of military officers guilty of rights abuses in troubled Aceh province has been found dead, the official Antara news agency said yesterday.
Mr Nashiruddin Daud, 58, vice-chairman of the parliamentary commission of inquiry into rights abuses in Aceh, was found last Tuesday near a main street in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, Antara said. His body bore severe wounds.
Mr Daud, an Aceh native, might have been abducted while he was on his way to the airport to catch a flight to Jakarta, said Mr Abdullah Saleh, secretary of the Aceh branch of the United Development Party, of which Mr Daud was a member.
In Jakarta, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Akbar Tanjung, said Mr Daud and several other MPs had been on an official visit to Aceh.
"Other members [of the Aceh parliamentary probe team] have returned but he wanted to stay for one day in Medan," Mr Tanjung said. "His death might be related to his role in the Aceh case."
Last November the parliamentary commission summoned former military chiefs and several generals over their role in human rights abuses in Aceh, which has been racked by clashes between troops and separatist rebels.
Popular resentment against the military and central government has prompted calls for a referendum on self-rule in Aceh, a resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's National Police Chief, Lieutenant-General Rusdihardjo, and Navy Chief Admiral Achmad Sutjipto have rejected claims by Aceh separatist rebels that Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) were responsible for the recent killing of six Marines who were shot while praying at a mosque.
General Rusdihardjo and Admiral Sutjipto, speaking at separate events, were quoted by the Indonesian Observer as saying the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was responsible for the murders last Monday evening.
GAM officials immediately denied carrying out the killings, saying rifts in TNI were the reason for the violence. But Admiral Sutjipto insisted the separatists had conducted the murders.
An Aceh newspaper reported yesterday that pro-independence guerillas said they would accept a proposed ceasefire if government forces called off their campaign to crush the rebellion.