Chris Brummitt, Lawang – By the time the military arrived at dawn, most men had already fled this isolated village in Indonesia's Aceh province. More than 70 soldiers herded the few that remained, along with the women, into a prayer house.
But what happened next was in dispute Wednesday as the military continued its offensive against separatists in Aceh.
People in Lawang told The Associated Press that troops accused one man, Abu Bakar, 35, of being a rebel and dragged him away Tuesday to a coffee plantation and killed him with shots to the head and chest. But Lt. Col. Akhmad Yani Basuki said the man, a suspected rebel taken away for questioning, was shot when he tried to escape. "He tried to escape. Therefore, he was shot," Basuki said.
The claims by the villagers emerged just over a week into Indonesia's latest campaign in Aceh, a region rich in oil and gas where rebels have sought an independent state since 1976.
Previous bloody incursions into the region have fueled the rebellion, one of several in outlying provinces that threaten to divide the giant archipelago. This time, the government in Jakarta said it hoped to encourage support for the offensive among the 4.3 million people who live in Aceh.
The government has dispatched about 40,000 troops to fight an estimated 5,000 rebels in the northern province.
Foreign governments have supported the offensive, fearing the chaos that would result in the region if Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, were to break up.
However, accounts of military abuses could cause concern in the United States, which is seeking to enlist the Indonesian military in its war on terror after the October 12 bombings on the island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly Western tourists.
The military says it has killed more than 80 rebels in its latest offensive in Aceh. Reporters are generally barred so independent verification is difficult. Six police and military have also been killed, according to officials.
In Lawang, Abu Bakar's wife, Aisyah, said he was not a rebel. Most men in the village, in a region known to support the insurgency, had already fled into the hills before the troops arrived, villagers said.
"My husband insisted on staying ... he felt he had done nothing wrong," said Aisyah. "He was an ordinary man, a farmer. He wanted to stay to look after his children." Residents said soldiers beat five men with a large wooden block, on which bloodstains were still visible the next day. The soldiers burned two houses and a motorbike, they said.
The military said no weapons were found in the poor cotton-growing village, about 30 miles west of Aceh's northern capital of Lhokseumawe. Yani, who has denied several other allegations of abuse by his troops, admitted some of the soldiers had taken part in "violent actions" and said they would be prosecuted.
In Jakarta, military commander Gen. Endriatorno Sutarto said the government was achieving its objectives in Aceh faster than expected and that there would be larger operations next week.
"The second month target of the operation was achieved in two weeks," Endriatorno said. "The next stage will be to chase away the rebels from residential areas without sacrificing civilians."