Attacks on Golkar offices continue<\/p>\n
SURABAYA (JP): The supporters of President Abdurrahman \"Gus
\nDur\" Wahid continued on Thursday to vent their rage against what
\nthey see as a conspiracy to unseat the President by vandalizing
\nanother Golkar Party office, this time in Lamongan, situated some
\n40 kilometers northwest of here.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people marched to the Golkar office while yelling
\nanti-Golkar slogans and started pelting the building with stones.
\nThe building's windows were shattered and some of its roof tiles
\nwere dislodged.<\/p>\n
The protesters also vandalized the Lamongan regency offices in
\nan effort to force the regency secretary Ena Sumarna to sign a
\nstatement acknowledging that the Golkar building belonged to the
\npeople.<\/p>\n
Police managed to disperse the crowd before further violence
\ntook place.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Jakarta, presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar
\nsaid President Abdurrahman would visit the East Java coastal town
\nof Pasuruan, some 60 kilometers southeast of Surabaya, on Friday.<\/p>\n
\"He wants to meet the people who really support him and
\nPasuruan is a good choice as it's a major center of support for
\nGus Dur,\" Wimar told a press briefing after a Cabinet meeting on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
\"He wants to make sure that his followers are conducting
\nthemselves in a peaceful manner, and this will make it easier --
\nshould any such violence occur again -- to make the distinction
\nbetween his real followers and the people who exploit the
\ncommotion in the streets,\" Wimar said, referring to the violent
\nattacks on Golkar offices in East Java by the President's
\nsupporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
When asked whether the President believed that the people
\ninvolved in Wednesday's violence were not his real supporters,
\nWimar said: \"(The President) can't express this kind of analysis
\nor his suspicions in public, but as the President, of course he
\nhas to take every possibility into consideration.\"<\/p>\n
However, later on Thursday, the President played down the
\nsignificance of his planned visit to Pasuruan.<\/p>\n
\"I know that my visit will only be able to stop the fighting
\nfor one or two days,\" Abdurrahman said before a meeting with
\nuniversity students.<\/p>\n
Other attacks<\/p>\n
In Yogyakarta, at least 350 protesters sealed the Yogyakarta
\nGolkar offices on Jl. Jenderal Sudirman here on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Braving a downpour, they urged the police officers guarding
\nthe building to let them \"quarantine\" the offices.<\/p>\n
After long negotiation, the protesters managed to approach the
\nbuilding and posted up a piece of black paper which read, \"This
\noffice is sealed off by the people\".<\/p>\n
Similar actions were reportedly also conducted by
\nAbdurrahman's supporters in the town of Nganjuk and in Sampang,
\nMadura Island, both in East Java. The mobs also threw stones at
\nthe Golkar offices in both towns before being brought under
\ncontrol by the police.<\/p>\n
Thursday's actions reflected the anger felt by Abdurrahman's
\nsupporters in East Java. They had earlier vandalized the Golkar
\noffices in Gresik and torched the Golkar offices in Surabaya,
\nMalang and Mojokerto.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman's supporters had previously also blocked roads in
\nBanyuwangi and Situbondo and blockaded the port of Ketapang in
\nBanyuwangi as part of their protest against the House of
\nRepresentatives' (DPR) censure of the President over the Bulog
\nand Brunei scandals.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman, born in Jombang, East Java, chaired the country's
\nlargest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), for 15 years
\nbefore being elected the country's fourth President.<\/p>\n
Most East Java towns are known as NU strongholds.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Surabaya City Police chief Sr. Comr. Suharto said
\nthat eight people had been arrested for the looting and torching
\nof Golkar's East Java headquarters in Surabaya on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
According to Suharto, seven of the suspects were being
\ndetained by the Surabaya City Police, while another suspect was
\nbeing held by the South Surabaya police precinct. \"They were all
\ncaught in the act.\"<\/p>\n
Reports from Bandung said that some 800 police officers had
\nbeen sent to East Java on Wednesday to help the East Java Police
\ndeal with the demonstrations. Deputy National Police chief Sr.
\nComr. Panji Atmasudirdja admitted that the officers should have
\nbeen sent days before the Golkar offices in Surabaya were burned
\ndown.<\/p>\n
PRD and ulemas<\/p>\n
Enraged by the spate of attacks on Golkar offices, a deputy
\nchairman of Golkar, Mahadi Sinambela, accused President
\nAbdurrahman and the People's Democratic Party (PRD) of being
\ninvolved in a conspiracy to destroy Golkar offices.<\/p>\n
Mahadi, accompanied by East Jakarta Golkar chairman Ridwan
\nIsyam, said that several kyai (ulemas) were also involved in the
\nacts of vandalism.<\/p>\n
Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung, who is also House Speaker,
\nsaid on Thursday that the President should have condemned his
\nsupporters' actions.<\/p>\n
He further said that the anarchic actions perpetrated against
\nGolkar offices were similar to those orchestrated by the
\nCommunists in 1965.<\/p>\n
\"Physically, we can point to the People's Democratic Party
\n(PRD), City Forum (Forkot), Student Action Forumn for Reform and
\nDemocracy (Famred) and City Network (Jarkot) as being the
\nmovements conspiring against us,\" he asserted.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, several legislators from different factions in the
\nHouse voiced their concerns over the attacks saying that such
\nanarchic actions should have been stopped and the perpetrators
\narrested by the security forces.<\/p>\n
Still in Jakarta, a retired generals' group called the Post-
\n1945 Forum set a four-month deadline for the President to improve
\nhis government or otherwise the President should hand over power
\nto Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputeri.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the Forum, Lt. Gen. (ret) Harsudiono Hartas,
\nsaid that Gus Dur had failed to uphold the spirit of reform by
\nallowing corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) to continue.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Harsudiono called on the Indonesian Military
\n(TNI) to prepare itself to answer the \"nation's call\".<\/p>\n
\"In a crisis like this, the system and law have been
\noverthrown. We need resolute action to maintain security across
\nthe nation.\"<\/p>\n
In Makassar, South Sulawesi, a clash erupted between Golkar
\nsupporters and anti-Golkar students from the Makassar Students
\nForum and led to the arrest of two anti-Golkar protesters and
\nfive Golkar supporters.<\/p>\n
In Semarang, some 40 women grouped in the Semarang Women's
\nForum took the streets demanding that President Abdurrahman and
\nAmien Rais, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly
\n(MPR), join forces for the sake of the people.<\/p>\n
Separately, 500 Abdurrahman supporters staged a protest at the
\ngate of the Krapyak-Jatingaleh toll road, causing traffic
\ncongestion for four hours. They branded the politicians who
\nwanted to topple Gus Dur as cowards.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile in Jakarta, at least three students were injured in
\na mass brawl between two rival groups near the Hotel Indonesia
\ntraffic circle in Central Jakarta, with both of the groups
\nclaiming to represent the cause of reform.<\/p>\n
The brawl started just after the students had attended a
\ndialog with President Abdurrahman Wahid in the nearby Hotel
\nIndonesia at around 8.45 p.m.<\/p>\n
Faisal and Reza, both students in Sahid University suffered
\nstab wounds and were rushed to St. Carolus' Hospital in Central
\nJakarta, while another student, who remains unidentified, was
\nadmitted to Tebet Hospital in South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
According to Faisal, he and his friends were walking to a bus
\nstop on Jl. Imam Bonjol when a group of people, some of whom were
\narmed, attacked them. Faisal received a cut to his head and a
\nstab wound in his right hand.<\/p>\n
Spokesman for the University of Indonesia's Student Executive
\nBody (BEM-UI) Burhan denied allegations that his group had
\nsparked the chaos. \"It could be a third party who wanted to fish
\nin murky waters,\" he said. (team)<\/p>",
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