Indonesia

This report examines the response of Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to a massacre in Aceh that occurred in August 2001. Thirty men and a two-year-old child, all ethnic Acehnese, were shot and killed by a group of armed men who suddenly appeared on the grounds of the Bumi Flora rubber and palm oil plantation in Julok, East Aceh. After the killings, the men disappeared just as suddenly. The Indonesian army and police accused the rebel Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka or GAM) of responsibility; GAM insisted that the killers were members of the Indonesian security forces. To date, no serious investigation has taken place. On January 8, 2002, Komnas HAM agreed to establish a formal Commission of Inquiry into the killings, suggesting that some movement in the case might be possible. But as this report illustrates, that hope may be illusory.