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Komnas HAM opens probe into bones found at Aceh's Rumoh Geudong
Initially found late last year near the ruins of a traditional house the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) used as a base during the military operation in Aceh, the bones were stored in a warehouse for months before they were reburied at the site on March 3.
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The ruins of a staircase still stand on June 25, 2023 at the planned site of the Rumoh Geudong Living Memorial Park in Bili Aron village, Pidie regency, Aceh. The traditional house that once stood there was reportedly used as a base by the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) during the government’s campaign against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in 1989-1998, according to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). (Kompas.com/Daspriani Y. Zamzami)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is launching an investigation into the human bones that were discovered at the site of a memorial park in Aceh’s Pidie regency to commemorate the victims of the Rumoh Geudong tragedy.
"Komnas HAM has obtained information from the people of Bili Aroen village in Glumpang Tiga district, Pidie regency, as well as [from] media reports on the discovery of [human] bones at the construction site of the Rumoh Geudong Living Memorial Park project," Komnas HAM commissioner Abdul Haris Semendawai said in a statement issued on Saturday.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ordered that the memorial park be built to remember the victims of gross human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, alleged to have taken place during the military operation against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) from 1989 to 1998 in what was then called the Aceh military operation region (DOM).
President Jokowi visited the Rumoh Geudong site in June 2023, six months after he acknowledged and apologized for 12 incidents of gross human rights violations committed by the government between 1965 and 2003 in a bid to make good on his campaign promises.
Read also: Government sincere in solving past rights abuses: Jokowi
Construction workers reportedly discovered six human femurs while excavating a former drainage ditch.
Initially found late last year near the ruins of a traditional house the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) used as a base during the military operation in Aceh, the bones were stored in a warehouse for months before they were reburied at the site on March 3.
