Greg Torode, Jakarta – Police in the central Javanese city of Cilacap reportedly have been ordered to shoot rioting fishermen if need be. Rioting flared for a second time on Saturday night as thousands of fishermen attacked and looted bosses' homes and public buildings over labour disputes.

Many of an estimated 200 company owners are ethnic Chinese. Their families have fled the port city after workers attacked the Nusantara Fishery Port on Friday, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported yesterday. No reports of injuries have been received.

The latest rioting follows President Bacharuddin Habibie's pledge on Saturday that he would never introduce martial law to quell looting and rioting now breaking out across the nation as inflation surges. "I'm against martial law... it is not democratic," Mr Habibie said. "It's not possible that I would ever do that – it is against my convictions."

Jakarta businessmen say privately they have been fearing for sometime that the military might be forced to bring in new security measures to restore stability during sensitive reforms.

Reports of looting are flooded into Jakarta almost daily, with warehouses and plantations being favoured targets of bands of poor people seeking sugar, rice, coffee and cooking oil.

Hundreds of looters raided shops, mills and plantations in the East Javanese town of Situbondo over the weekend. Troops remained on alert in the town yesterday and there were no fresh reports of violence. "Everything is back to normal and has calmed down," police officer Arjono said, speaking from his office in Bondowoso, 35km southwest of Situbondo. "The security forces are still on the alert."

The state-run Antara news agency said on Saturday a rice mill in Situbondo district was targeted, while another group pillaged a storehouse of rice and sugar stocks. About 600 security personnel were deployed to prevent the looting from spreading to other areas. The mill was in Kapongan sub-district, while the attacked storehouse was in Asembagus, another sub-district about 8km to the east. Situbondo district borders on Bondowoso, where looters attacked and ransacked rice mills and shops in six sub-districts between Tuesday and Thursday.