Bloody Days In Indonesia

Khairurrazi Ismail always believed he would die young. He was right. The thin, sickly, 18-year-old's corpse was lowered last week into a muddy trench in a village cemetery in Peusangan, in the north of the Indonesian province of Aceh. But it wasn't sickness that stole his life. Khairurrazi was beaten, bayoneted and shot to death by Indonesian soldiers. "Half his skull was blown off," weeps his mother Ramla. "I had to pick up my poor boy's brains and put them back in his head."

Khairurrazi was among the first casualties of a massive military campaign launched last week by the Indonesian military to crush the separatist Free Aceh Movement after the government's peace talks with the rebels collapsed. The fiercely nationalistic Acehnese have long resented what they consider Indonesia's illegitimate occupation. In 27 years of fighting between the military and the separatists, some 12,000 people have lost their lives. The military claimed the Peusangan villagers were killed during a shoot-out. But witnesses tell TIME that some of the eight males, from 11 to 20 years old, were shot in the head at close range when rampaging soldiers ran into them near a cluster of fish ponds. Others were gunned down as they ran away. Witnesses add that forces also went house to house pistol-whipping men and demanding information.

Expect more of the same in coming months. The military has begun what promises to be a long, gory campaign. It aims to winnow out rebels by forcibly emptying villages and herding people into internment camps. Armed men who remain in the villages will be told to shed their weapons and come out. Those who remain, says General Sudi Silalahi, an adviser to the National Security Minister, will be subject to "sweepings." In practice, that means they will probably be shot. Meanwhile, the outmuscled rebels can be expected to draw out the fighting to provoke more atrocities, hoping to embarrass Jakarta into withdrawing its troops. But a continuing conflict also serves the interests of Indonesia's military brass, which sees a chance to regain some of the power it lost with the fall of dictator Suharto five years ago. And President Megawati Sukarnoputri, looking to next year's elections, wants to be seen as tough on separatism. As a senior Western diplomat wearily remarks, all sides want — even need — the conflict to continue. All, that is, but the people of Aceh.