Shoot-on-sight order imposed in restive Aceh

Shoot-on-sight order imposed in restive Aceh

Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

In an abrupt response to a call for a massive transport
strike, Brig. Gen. Djali Yusuf, commander of military operations
in Aceh, has ordered security officers to shoot on sight anyone
found disturbing public interests.

"I have ordered all security personnel to shoot on sight those
found intentionally disturbing the public interest or peace," he
told The Jakarta Post by telephone here on Monday.

"Those found felling trees to block the roads, inciting people
to join a strike or planting explosives in public places will be
shot on sight," he said.

Djali was responding to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)'s call
for a three-day general strike, starting this Wednesday, to
protest what the separatist rebels say is excessive brutality by
military and police forces.

The move also comes as an objection to the government's plan
to reinstate the Iskandar Muda Military Command in the strife-
torn province.

Security personnel have been deployed from all available
forces from Monday on to counter the call for the strike action.

Djali said that the police and military would make all their
vehicles available for public transport "if operators halt
services following the strike call."

Leaders of the Aceh administration, security forces and
community leaders have all united in urging the public to ignore
the strike order, saying it is misleading and will only bring
more suffering to the people of the embattled province.

"All Acehnese people are asked to ignore GAM's call for a
total strike, and to continue their daily activities in
accordance with their own professions," said a joint statement
read by Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh on Monday.

The statement was jointly signed by the governor, Deputy
Chairman of the Aceh Legislative Council T. Bachrum Manyak,
provincial Prosecutors' Office Chief Sunaryo, provincial
police/security restoration operation chief Insp. Gen. Yusuf
Mangga Barani, and Brig. Gen. Djali Yusuf.

The statement also said that the Acehnese should not fear the
strike call because both the police and the military will protect
them on all roads, and at the administration, economic and social
centers across the province.

It went on to say that any strike will bring needless
suffering to all people in Aceh, and would work against the
teachings of Islam.

Security personnel, according to the statement, will take
strict actions against anyone inciting the strike.

Djali, an Acehnese, called on the people not to be affected by
GAM's call.

"Why should we feel frightened with them? We've been feeling
threatened so far even without being threatened," he asserted.

GAM spokesman Teungku Sofyan Dawood said one of the purposes
of the strike was to attract international attention to the
question of Acehnese independence.

"We ask the people of Aceh to stay to pray at home and places
of worship during the three-day strike," he said.

Violence between GAM and security forces continues to inflict
fatalities. More than 50 people, including innocent civilians,
were killed in the first two weeks of the year.

Maj. Zaenal Mutaqin, a spokesman for the military operation in
the province, said security officers shot dead two rebels in a
skirmish in Temarem village, West Aceh on Sunday.

One of the two was identified as 24-year-old Ardiansyah.

Security officials also seized a .36-caliber pistol, a set of
communications radios and receipts bearing the GAM logo.

Soldiers also shot three other rebels who were found
vandalizing a two-meter section of road in Lhok Pusong, Bireuen,
in an attempt to block troops from raiding on their base.

In another bloody episode, two suspected rebels were killed in
a military raid on an alleged rebel hideout in a village in West
Aceh, also on Sunday.

Two bodies with gunshot wounds were found in a river in a
village on the outskirts of provincial capital Banda Aceh on the
same day, a human rights activist said.