Acehnese stock up before mass strike

Acehnese stock up before mass strike

JAKARTA (JP): Acehnese packed shops and market places on the
eve of a mass strike planned for Wednesday and Thursday to
protest military violence in the troubled province, witnesses and
local journalists said on Tuesday.

Witnesses said people were seen flocking to the shops and
markets in towns in Pidie and North Aceh.

"The situation is tense... housewives were seen buying up
foodstuffs and other essentials at shopping centers," a local
journalist told The Jakarta Post by phone from the Pidie capital
of Sigli, some 125 kilometers east of the provincial capital of
Banda Aceh.

He also said troops and police were busy carrying out a door-
to-door campaign to persuade shop owners to stay open on
Wednesday and Thursday.

Shop owners, however, said they would only resume their
activities on Friday, the journalist said.

Another journalist in the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe
said the market was packed "just like on Hari Raya (Idul Fitri
Muslim celebration)", with people buying up supplies to ensure
they had enough food, at least for the weekend.

"People are buying cooking oil in jerricans," he said.

He also said prices had dropped because traders were trying to
sell off stock. Cooking oil was selling at Rp 2,700 per liter,
compared to the usual Rp 3,000 per liter. Onions had also dropped
to Rp 1,500 per kilogram, from Rp 6,000 per kilogram.

The ongoing violence of the past month has hampered
transportation of crops from farmers to markets and farmers are
expecting devastating losses.

Residents, including traders, fear that the two-day strike
could be extended up to the Aug. 17 Independence Day celebration.

There are rumors that supporters of the separatist Free Aceh
movement will try to lower the Indonesian flag and replace it
with the Free Aceh's red crescent moon and star flag.

Bus drivers in Lhokseumawe said on Tuesday they were adopting
a wait-and-see attitude as to whether they would operate on
Wednesday and Thursday.

Muhammad, a car rental owner in Banda Aceh, said there was "no
way" his vehicles would be leased for use outside the city area
during the planned strike.

"We will still (rent our cars) in Banda Aceh, but we won't go
out of town, the cars could be set on fire," he said.

Residents said they fear nonparticipation in the strike could
lead to them being tagged as "antisolidarity" with the "struggle
of the Aceh people" against injustices, which the call for the
strike refers to.

Strike organizers said at a media conference in the provincial
capital earlier on Tuesday that employees working in essential
public services should not relinquish their duties on Wednesday
and Thursday.

Hospitals, post offices, telecommunications offices, the media
and employees at essential plants, which by shutting down would
endanger the lives of the public, must go to work as usual, M.
Taufik Abda of the Aceh Students for Reform (KARMA) said.

Another strike organizer, Ari Maulana, told the Post the
strike was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and end at 6
p.m. on Thursday.

Executives from plants in Lhokseumawe such as PT Asean Aceh
Fertilizer and Pupuk Iskandar Muda fertilizer plant earlier
conveyed concerns to Governor Syamsuddin Mahmud that if a strike
went ahead, disruption to electricity supplies could lead to the
explosion of ammonia tanks. They said the blast from an explosion
could cause damaged within a 10-kilometer radius.

Students also said local government and military officials
have been persuading the public to refrain from participating in
the strike.

Witnesses said the local government had placed a quarter page
advertisement in a local paper on Monday urging the community to
carry out their activities as usual.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta and Surabaya, students rallied to
express their support for Acehnese and demand that the military
be pulled out of the province.

Violence between the military and suspected rebels has been on
the rise in the province since early this year. More than 200
people have been killed, including troops and police, prompting
more than 100,000 people to flee their villages and seek shelter
in mosques and school buildings. (byg/anr/nur)