Wahid Blames Police, Army in Aceh Violence

President Abdurrahman Wahid blamed the army and police Friday for the escalating violence in Aceh province and the deaths of at least 19 civilians before a separatist rally.

Wahid said he will summon military chief Adm. Widodo Adisutjipto, Army Commander Gen. Endriarto Sutarto and national police Chief Gen. Bimantoro to explain the use of violence against pro-independence activists.

“Acehnese people are my religious brothers,” Wahid said after attending religious services in Madura, an island off the northern coast of East Java.

“I want to ask [them], ‘Since when are guns used in negotiations?’ ” Wahid was quoted saying by the Tempo news service. “If you are using guns, then please retire.”

Wahid’s unprecedented criticism of the security forces came a day before a scheduled rally in the province’s capital, Banda Aceh, about 1,100 miles northwest of Jakarta.

Rally organizers are demanding a plebiscite for the region of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Indonesia’s government announced Thursday that it will meet in Switzerland next week with the rebel group, the Free Aceh Movement. Government and rebel representatives signed an unprecedented truce in Geneva on June 2. Despite that, fighting in the province has left about 220 dead since then.

The separatists--who claim wide public support--have been fighting for independence for their oil- and gas-rich homeland since 1975. At least 5,500 people have been killed there in the past decade.

Clashes on Thursday and Friday between pro-independence residents and security forces claimed six lives.

Security forces shot and killed three civilians Thursday in the east of the province, human rights worker Mohammed Yusuf Puteh said.

Local police chief Lt. Col. Arief Sumarman said a security patrol shot dead two rebels in west Aceh. Local residents said the two were civilians. On Friday, a body was found on the banks of a river in the center of Banda Aceh, a doctor at a local hospital said.