The Indonesian Red Cross said on Saturday it had found about 80 bodies in western Aceh province, where a military offensive against rebels began earlier in the week. "Up to today the Red Cross has evacuated about 80 bodies" as a result of clashes or from areas where there has been fighting, Marie Muhammad, head of the PMI (the Indonesian Red Cross), said. Mr Muhammad, a former Indonesian finance minister, said he did not have details on how the victims were killed and also said it was not the PMI's job to try to determine whether they were civilians or Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.
| "They're deaders. What's it matter to them? If it doesn't matter to them, why should it matter to us?" |
The military said separately on Saturday that soldiers and police had killed four rebels in three battles overnight and in the morning. That would take the military's toll of GAM fighters killed since the offensive began on Monday to 62. Military sources also say two government soldiers and five civilians have died.
| "Yar! Kill the rebel scum!" |
For their part, the rebels say at least 53 civilians have been killed, along with 12 GAM fighters and 43 soldiers and police.
| "Yar! Kill the gov'ment oppressors!" |
The casualty tolls could not be independently verified.
| Since both parties have been known to lie through their teeth... |
Meanwhile, the Indonesian military said it is investigating reports its soldiers had killed civilians during the operation. Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki, spokesman for the six-day-old operation, said two soldiers and two journalists from the respected Indonesian publication Tempo had begun their investigation on Saturday. The probe was sparked by media reports of killings on Wednesday in a cluster of villages near Bireuen town.
| "Yar! Kill the innocent bystanders!" |
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