http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2931096.stm
Youths 'massacred' in Aceh village

Fresh details have been emerging of alleged executions by Indonesian troops fighting separatist rebels in Aceh.

The BBC's Orlando de Guzman has made a second visit to the
site of Wednesday's incident, in the northern village of Mapa
Mamplam, and has been told by witnesses that boys, one as
young as 12, were among the victims.

Military chiefs have denied the allegations, saying that
civilians are never targeted.

Indonesian warships have been shelling rebel positions, as the military continues its offensive against the Free Aceh
Movement (Gam), which began on Monday after peace talks
broke down.

The villagers at Mapa Mamplam
said a group of seven boys and men, aged between 12 and
20, were sleeping in a hut near a prawn farm to guard it -
standard practice in rural areas.

A group of Indonesian soldiers entered the hut and dragged
the boys out, lining them up on one of the dykes dividing the
ponds, they said.

A witness, who had a clear view of the events, told our
correspondent that some of the group were then shot one by
one at close range.

Three or four others were then told to run, before being shot
in the back, the villager said.

In his first visit to the village,
our correspondent saw four
bodies with bullet wounds to
the back of the head.

The military said on Friday it
had killed 38 rebels since
Monday. Rebels said 12 of their
fighters had been killed, along
with 53 civilians.

Human rights workers say
almost 10,000 people have fled
their homes since the fighting
started.

Major-General Endang Suwarya,
the commander overseeing
Indonesia's campaign in the
strife-torn province, hass
insisted: "Absolutely no civilians
were killed.

"We have a list of targets that
we want killed or captured. We don't miss or make mistakes."

However, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda admitted that
rebels no longer wear military uniform, and therefore are
difficult to distinguish from the local population.

Our correspondent says that whenever reports of such
abuses come to light in Aceh, the Gam rebels and Indonesia's
authorities tend to blame each other.

However, he adds that in recent days there have been many
confirmed cases of Indonesian troops storming into villages,
dragging people out of their homes and brutalising them.

'All-out attack'

The BBC's Rachel Harvey says the army is determined to crush
the rebels, amid evidence that supplies of food and fuel are
running low in many areas.

So far, the offensive has largely taken the form of sporadic
skirmishes, largely in the middle of the night, and mostly in the
northern districts of Bireun and Pidie.

The military crackdown in Aceh
began after talks with rebel
negotiators broke down, ending
a five-month-old peace deal that
had raised hopes of a permanent
resolution to the 26-year conflict.

Indonesian President Megawati
Sukarnoputri has imposed martial
law, giving the military sweeping
powers to make arrests, impose curfews and curb travel.

Acehnese resentment against Jakarta's rule has been fuelled by
past abuses by the Indonesian military, and a feeling that the
government is exploiting the region's resources.

The failed peace deal, signed in December, offered Aceh an
autonomous government by 2004, which would have been
allowed to keep 70% of the revenue generated from the
province's rich oil reserves.