Banda Aceh – Ships using the Malacca Strait – one of the world's busiest sea lanes – should "seek permission" from separatist guerrillas in Indonesia's Aceh province, a rebel leader said Monday.

Ishak Daud, spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for East Aceh, denied involvement in a pirate attack on a Honduras-registered ship in the strait, off Aceh's east coast. on August 25,

But he added: "If they [shippers] do not want to seek permission from us, then they should not blame the GAM if cases such as experienced by the Honduran-flagged Ocean Silver ship repeat itself again."

A group of armed men on a speedboat attacked the coal-transporting "Ocean Silver" and forced the crew to sail to a small port in East Aceh. The pirates, whom the military said were GAM rebels, held six of the 12 crewmen, all Indonesians, and demanded 300 million rupiah (34,000 dollars) for their release. Six other crew members were freed.

Daud accused the military of staging the incident so that rebels "are seen as terrorists in the eyes of the international community. "How could we have pirated that ship when the waters of Aceh are daily crawling with war vessels of the Indonesian navy which has stepped up its patrols?" Daud told AFP.

He said the Indonesian government could not protect ships passing through the Malacca Strait but the GAM could. "We are also able to secure the Malacca Strait but the Indonesian navy warships should not be there."

Indonesian waters, including the strait between Malaysia and Indonesia, are the world's most pirate-prone.

Daud also called on member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) not to help Jakarta in the "massacre" of the people of Aceh. "ASEAN countries, especially Malaysia and Singapore, should never attempt to assist Indonesian in massacring the people of Aceh ... If they still do, we will take firm actions, among others by ruining all their interests in Aceh and Sumatra," Daud warned.