Security tight prior to hostages' release
Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Langsa, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam
The military has tightened security along the main road between Lhokseumawe and Langsa, East Aceh ahead of the release of hostages held by rebels, including RCTI private television station cameraman Fery Santoro.
TNI officers and tanks were seen on Friday stopping buses and checking passengers' identification cards every two kilometers along the main road.
Safri, a driver of Pelangi bus company that travels between Lhokseumawe and Medan, North Sumatra, revealed that his bus had been stopped by the officers seven times since entering East Aceh.
"We had to stop even after driving for only a few minutes. Every male passenger was told to show their IDs," Safri told The Jakarta Post.
Despite the scrutiny, he did not mind "as long as they don't hit people". The public in the past have complained of harassment and violence involving security personnel during such operations.
Separately, TNI announced on Friday that their personnel had killed four members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a clash in Mata'i hamlet, Pasir Raja district, South Aceh.
Three of them were identified as Salim, 32, Muzakir, 24 and Ridwan Syah, 25, while the fourth man has not yet been identified. They were shot dead on Thursday, Antara reported.
Fery and RCTI senior reporter Sory Ersa Siregar, along with two women and their driver, were abducted by GAM rebels in June, last year.
The driver, Rachmatsyah, managed to escape on Dec. 17 while Ersa was killed in Peureulak, East Aceh on Dec. 29. The TNI said he was killed by the military in a crossfire between soldiers and GAM fighters. Fery, who fled, only learned of Ersa's death later, thinking Ersa was behind him. It is not known whether there were any witnesses of Ersa's death as TNI claimed to have killed seven of the rebels in the incident, while Fery told reporters that he and Ersa were with "about seven" GAM members when the shots were first heard.
Officials are silent on the progress of negotiation to release the hostages. GAM claimed last year it was holding 84 hostages but a group of demonstrators on Thursday demanded the release of all "279" hostages.
Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Mar'ie Muhammad have been in Langsa, East Aceh since Thursday.
"It's too premature to talk about the negotiations. We are just glad that GAM and TNI have agreed that the release of hostages is a humanitarian affair," Mar'ie said on Friday.
In Jakarta, Vice President Hamzah Haz reiterated that the government would not fulfill a cease-fire condition demanded by GAM in releasing the hostages.
"The Indonesian Military has underscored that it would be impossible to do so ... it would mean that we acknowledge GAM as a state," he told reporters.