Banda Aceh – Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Indonesia's restive Aceh province, was calm early Sunday as the death toll linked to two days of pro-independence rallies reached 35. "So far, it appears to be calm this morning, but yesterday there were talks of continuing the street rallies today," a local journalists said.
An estimated 400,000 people had gathered in the capital since Wednesday to join a two-day rally in support of a referendum on independence. Last year a similar protest drew up to one million people. Rally organizers have blamed the lower turnout this year on violence used by police to prevent people from reaching the city.
Meanwhile, four more bodies have been found in east Aceh. The bodies of three men were found wrapped in a single black plastic sheet late on Friday night. A fourth body, a woman, was found on Saturday, according to Sibran Malasi, head of the Idi Rayeuk sub-district polyclinics where the bodies were sent to.
None of the bodies had bullet wounds although all showed traces of violence, Malasi said. The four deaths brought to 35, the number of people who have died since Wednesday, when crowds started to throng Banda Aceh for the protests.
Security forces shot at two passing cars in Lampineung, near here late on Saturday, leaving two people injured, one of them critically, residents said. Iswar Yusuf, an employee at the local governor's office, who was travelling in one of the cars, said that his wife Husnarida, 40, had been shot in four places – in both her thighs, in her waist and in her stomach.
He said that he was driving his wife and two children home from a vist to his parents when he was stopped by security forces. "My car stopped, but a bit farther than was ordered, and suddenly, from the front, the sides and from behind the car was shot at, with at least eight bullets shot into the car," Yusuf said.
The shooting stopped when one of his children screamed. Husnarida was still in critical conditions at the Zainul Abdidin general hospital, he said.
Another car carrying five people was also shot at by security forces manning a roadcheck, leaving one of the passengers, a woman, injured by a gunshot wound to the thigh.
A motorcycle driver and his passenger were also admitted to the emergency ward of the general hospital here after they were beaten up by security personnel at another roadcheck.
The rally has received a mixed response from Jakarta, with President Abdurrahman saying police should not resort to violence while the top security and political affairs minister, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono issued a stern warning that such large gathering could easily turn into a riot.
Human Rights Watch, in a statement sent to AFP, has warned that the deteriorating situation in Aceh was rapidly becoming a test of President Wahid's authority and of civilian control over the military.
It said that police and military units have been raiding NGO offices, arresting those involved in preparations for the mass rally, blocking transport, searching all vehicles headed for the capital, and shooting at rally participants trying to reach Banda Aceh.
"The Indonesian armed forces seem to be reverting to the worst days of the Soharto era," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, refering to the three decades of iron-fist rule by the country's second president, Suharto. "In the misguided notion that the push for a referendum is led by GAM [rebel movement], the army and police are turning their guns on civilians."
The Aceh Merdeka separatist movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence from Indonesian for the past 20 years, signed a truce with Jakarta in May that came into effect in June. It has since failed to halt the violence.
Jakarta, still smarting over the loss of East Timor in a UN-supervised ballot last year, has ruled out independence for Aceh yet promised broad autonomy instead.