Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – A year under President Abdurrahman Wahid has led to a continuation of human-rights violations.

The total number of deaths, summary arrests, disappearances and tortures in some regions had reportedly far outweighed the violations during President B.J. Habibie's presidency.

The Aceh Human Rights Care Forum said last week that the death toll in the province was 841, far more than last year's total of 393. Of the 841 killed, 676 were civilians, 124 were members of the police or army, and 41 were members of the Free Aceh Movement.

A separate survey by rights group Kontras found that from Irian Jaya to Maluku, to Aceh, 2,119 people had died over the past year in incidents involving human-rights violations. However, the real total may be much higher as other officials in Maluku say the death toll from sectarian fighting from January to September was over 2,000.

Both the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have condemned the rising violence of security forces across the archipelago. This was particularly so in Aceh, where last week police executed three people working for an international humanitarian agency.

"The Indonesian government is allowing its security forces to target humanitarian workers in Aceh, just as it allowed militias to target such workers in West Timor," the two human-rights organisations said. "The international community should be every bit as outraged over these executions as they were over the brutal killing of three United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees workers in September, and take equally firm action."

The report also said Mr Abdurrahman, well-known for his humanism, had done little to reduce human-rights violations. "Throughout the year, he proved strong on the symbolism of human rights and weaker on the implementation of safeguards," it said.

The head of Indonesia's National Human Rights body, Mr Asmara Nababan, said it was not surprising a high number of human-rights violations continued to be committed in the strife-torn provinces of Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya.

He said abuses occurred because Mr Abdurrahman's government had failed to remove the armed forces' presence in territories across Indonesia, and especially because there was no significant legal prosecution for soldiers or police found to have committed abuses.

'The methodology of solving political and social conflicts is still to use repressive measures through the armed forces. As long as the armed forces are used to solve these problems, you will continue to have violations,' he said.

Abuses: Police take part

Irian Jaya

• Dec 7: Following an attack on a police station, police raid student dormitories, beating and kicking up to 100 people. Three are beaten to death.
• Dec 2: Police open fire on pro-independence supporters, killing at least nine people across Irian Jaya.

• Dec 6: Four humanitarian workers assisting torture victims were stopped by police. Three were executed.
• Sept 19: Two student activists with Sira – a group that advocates a referendum on Aceh's political status – were beaten by mobile police after being seized at gunpoint.
• Sept 5: A volunteer with humanitarian organisation Save Emergency for Aceh was detained by the mobile police in the Meukek sub-district. He was released after having been punched, kicked and slashed.
• Aug 27: Three staff of Oxfam working in South Aceh were hospitalised after being tortured by Brimob officers.
• August: A US human-rights activist was killed and an Acehnese lecturer shot.