Banda Aceh – Separatist rebels in Aceh province have threatened to shoot or fine residents who vote in Monday's Indonesian general elections, an election monitor said Saturday.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels in Aceh Jaya district have threatened to beat legislative candidates, issued leaflets forbidding residents from voting, and have threatened to shoot people, said Taf Haikal, chief of the Aceh Non-governmental Organization Forum. "A number of villages have reported these threats," Haikal told AFP.
The long-standing organization has been active in voter education ahead of Monday's ballot for national and local legislatures and is one of the agencies that will monitor the vote in Aceh.
Rights groups in Jakarta have said the election cannot be conducted fairly in Aceh because the province is under martial law, declared last May at the start of an all-out government offensive aimed at crushing GAM.
Haikal produced the alleged GAM leaflets as well as a letter signed by six village chiefs who said GAM will fine voters Rp one million (117 dollars). The letter also alleged rebels threatened to amputate the fingers of anyone found with the tell-tale ink marking him as having voted.
A rebel leader in East Aceh district denied during the campaign that GAM sought to disrupt the polls. Ishak Daud told AFP in Jakarta that Acehnese should vote rather than face reprisals by the military.
Aceh's martial law administrator, Major General Endang Suwarya, said during the election campaign that GAM had started trying to terrorise people to disrupt the ballot.
Haikal's statements about GAM came two days after rights groups in Jakarta made a similar allegation against the Indonesian military. A coalition of rights groups said soldiers and police in East Aceh district had repeatedly threatened residents with comments such as,
"Everybody must vote. If not, people are taking a risk and will be shot." Aceh military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Asep Sapari told AFP the accusations were false. "The security forces are making the election peaceful and orderly," he said.
GAM has been fighting for an independent state in north Sumatra since 1976.