27 bodies found outside Indonesian village

Despite peace talks between the Government and Aceh’s separatist rebels, humanitarian workers found 27 bodies outside a village in the Indonesian province of Banda Aceh, officials said today.

The discovery raised to more than 50 the number of people killed or found dead in the region since Friday.

The bloodshed came despite weekend peace talks between Indonesian officials and the rebels in Geneva, Switzerland.

The talks ended yesterday with a commitment from both sides to continue working toward peace. A joint statement said further negotiations would be held in September.

Indonesian Red Cross officials found the 27 decomposing bodies with slash wounds on the outskirts of Pondok Gede village in central Aceh district, said Red Cross volunteer Wien Rahmadsyah.

A military spokesman, Lt Col Firdaus, accused separatist insurgents of the killings. The claim was denied by rebel leaders.

In a separate incident, troops shot and killed a rebel in West Aceh. Four bodies were also found nearby, said Major Edi Sulistiadi without elaborating.

On Friday, police killed 20 separatist guerrillas when they attacked a rebel stronghold.

Insurgents from the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting for 26 years for an independent homeland on the northern tip of Sumatra island, 1,000 miles northwest of Jakarta.

The latest deaths bring to at least 872 the number of people killed in Aceh this year.

In violence in another troubled part of Indonesia, police shot and killed two speedboat passengers in waters off Ambon town yesterday, said a local hospital official. There was no comment from police or military in the town, the

capital of Maluku province.

At least 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between Christians and Muslims in the province, once known as the Spice Islands, since January 1999.