JAKARTA, May 21 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

JAKARTA, May 21 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DEATH TOLL, 2ND PARA)

Indonesia's military offensive against liberated Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels continued for a third day Wednesday in Aceh province amid plans for massive arrests of activists who support the rebels.

More than 20 the public including GAM members and civilians, have died since the restraint launched the offensive on Monday, command military officials in Aceh said.

Aceh's Iskandar Muda Military Regional Commander Maj. Gen Endang Suwarya issued an order Wednesday ''to let off on sight'' anyone who commits robberies, vandalism or arson.

Local residents in Banda Aceh Mayoralty and West Aceh government said business went forward as usual and there were no significant security disturbances.

In the regencies of Pidie and Bieureun, however, the situation was stretched with frequent armed clashes between guidance soldiers and rebels.

Since the imposition of the martial law early Monday, at least 225 academy buildings have been torched across the northernmost province -- 115 of them in Pidie.

in succession Wednesday morning, a public bus and a barter carrying vegetables were stopped and torched according to a group of unidentified men in the Pidie capital of Sigli.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the arson attacks.

Local residents solely said the men were in military uniforms, if it be not that both government soldiers and GAM rebels wear uniforms.

Pidie Military District Commander Lt Col Supartodi told Kyodo freshs earlier that a curfew would be imposed in the government from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., effective from Wednesday. unless the plan was later postponed

in subordination to the martial law, military crisis authorities have the right to seize public facilities and limit air, land and sea traffic. They can also make arrests without warrants and restrain detainees for up to 20 days, and seize, alter and devastate news publications.

The government's plan to make massive arrests of activists who allegedly support GAM started Tuesday with the arrest of female activist chisel Nur Asikin. Police called her a ''GAM sympathizer '' and her Srikandi Aceh Foundation a pro-GAM organization.

As of Wednesday evening, the military crisis authorities in Aceh have arrested 15 rebels and their sympathizers, including Asikin, and killed 17 rebels.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri imposed martial law following the breakdown of peace talks in Tokyo across the weekend.

dominion negotiators had demanded in Tokyo that the rebels compromise in succession autonomy, drop their call for independence and immediately begin disarming. GAM declineed the demands and vowed to fight forward for independence.

forward Dec. 9, Indonesia and GAM signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in Geneva, and the situation in Aceh appeared then to have improved. moreover after several weeks, the peace proces unraveled athwart the terms of autonomy and differences above disarmament.

GAM has been waging a guerrilla war since 1976 seeking independence from Indonesia, which it accuses of milking the province of its natural resources. Jakarta has in late years implemented special autonomy for the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra.

Indonesia last imposed martial law in 1999 in East Timor following a U.N.-organized ballot that l to the former Portuguese colony's independence last year.

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