Indonesia resorted to increasingly repressive methods...

Indonesia resorted to increasingly repressive methods in 2003 in its attempts to crush separatist movements in Aceh and Papua provinces, Amnesty International said. The rights group reported a rise in extrajudicial executions, "disappearances", arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, forced displacement and destruction of property since martial law was declared and a military operation launched in Aceh in May 2003. Amnesty, in its annual report, said military operations against both armed and peaceful independence activists in Papua "also resulted in human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and torture." It said tight restrictions on access to Aceh effectively prevented independent monitoring. But according to official sources, over 1,100 people had been killed by the end of 2003 including some 470 civilians. Local rights organisations claimed that many more civilians were among the dead, it said. Amnesty said human rights defenders were still at risk, especially in Aceh where they were accused by the military of links to GAM. Two members of Aceh rights organisations were believed to have been extra-judicially executed and three others "disappeared" during the year.