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Vanishing witness delays death trial

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - February 8, 2000

Jakarta – The planned trial of 20 men, 18 of them military personnel, accused of shooting down 56 Acehnese in cold blood last July has been postponed because a key witness has gone missing, press reports said yesterday.

The Jakarta Post quoted the Human Rights Minister, Mr Hasballah Saad, as saying the missing witness was a "military officer" of the Medan-based Bukit Barisan military command, but he refused to identify him by name. "It has been delayed due to the disappearance of the key witness," Mr Saad was quoted as saying during a visit to south-east Sulawesi at the weekend.

The trial had been scheduled to start before the end of the month to try the 20 accused of lining up and shooting dead an Islamic boarding-school teacher and his wife and students – in all 56 people – on July 23 last year. The local military command at the time described the incident as an "exchange of fire" and said the teacher, Tengku Bantaqiah, was allied to the separatist Free Aceh Movement.

The identities of the suspects who had been scheduled to go on trial before a joint civilian-military tribunal in the offshore island of Sabang have been kept a secret so far.

The announcement that the witness was missing came after the discovery last week of the body of Nashirruddin Daud, 58, an outspoken MP who was a member of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into human rights abuses in Aceh, a staunchly Islamic and resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

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