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)