Aceh calm but tense as transport strike continues

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): The province was calm but tense on Saturday following several days of transportation strike, killings and arson.

No major clashes were reported. The vital eastern highway connecting Banda Aceh and Medan remained closed but public vans began plying their regular routes in Banda Aceh. However, truck drivers remained on strike in protest of a lack of security.

Drivers of public buses in Lhokseumawe, where major multinational companies are located, was still on strike.

A police officer in the eastern town of Langsa, who asked for anonymity, said bus and truck owners were still worried about security along the highway. At least one bus and two mikrolet (minivan) have been burned between Wednesday and Friday alone.

Schools remained closed on Saturday although it was not a school holiday. On Wednesday, almost 60 schools across the province were set on fire.

In Blang Pidie, a coastal town in the southeast, two bodies were found early Saturday morning. Police said the two men might have been murdered after they were abducted the night before. The men were allegedly involved in blocking roads in their neighborhood.

Like in many other big towns, streets in Blang Pidie were still barricaded with fallen trees. Several towns in the west of the province were practically isolated. In Blang Pidie, gas stations ran out of supply and the price of gasoline at street retailers here shot to Rp 5,000 (US55 cents) per liter, while the official price is only Rp 1,450.

Kuala Simpang, a southern town near the border with North Sumatra where a soldier and a Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel were killed on Friday, was calm.

The two members of the South Aceh Legislative Council, Ramli H. Ubit and Rusli S., who were abducted by a group of unidentified men in Kuala Bate subdistrict on Friday, were released on Saturday.

"They are safe and well," said a relative of Ubit who declined to be named. "They were reunited with their families this morning."

The military accused GAM rebels of abducting the legislators. Sr. Comr. Sudarsono, spokesman for Aceh Police, said Ramli and Rusli were abducted on their way from their home in Kota Bahagia to participate in the Independence Day celebration in Blang Pidie, some 20 kilometers from Kota Bahagia.

The Independence Day anniversary here was marred by bomb blasts from Thursday night to Friday across the restive province. Four banks in Banda Aceh were destroyed and two people were killed when the bombs they wanted to plant exploded prematurely.

In Jakarta, the Human Rights Watch said on Saturday that human rights abuses in Aceh were mounting.

The human rights watchdog called in a statement on Saturday for the Indonesian government and the rebels in Aceh not harm civilians, saying both sides had been responsible for human rights violations.

The Human Rights Watch also urged the government to stop the persecution of nonviolent supporters of political change in Aceh and to allow local human rights organizations to investigate human rights abuses.

"There is no question that both sides have been responsible for unlawful killings as well as other abuses," said Sydney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "But the Indonesian government has a particular responsibility to ensure that those who are supposed to uphold the law do not themselves become violators of it. In this it has failed utterly."

The Human Rights Watch also called on the Megawati administration to set up a human rights court to persecute serious human rights abuses. (50/pan)