Avoid violence: Megawati<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
\nPerjuangan) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri appealed to party
\nmembers and the entire nation on Tuesday to avoid violence and to
\nhelp make the upcoming General Session of the People's
\nConsultative Assembly a success.<\/p>\n
Her calls were delivered during a ceremony marking the third
\nanniversary of the July 27, 1996, takeover of the headquarters of
\nthe Indonesian Democratic Party led by Megawati. The ceremony was
\nheld at Senayan Stadium in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"I call on all my friends in the Indonesian community to show
\nthe international world that we are a civilized nation,\" Megawati
\nsaid while addressing some 10,000 party members and supporters.<\/p>\n
\"We have to promote the antiviolence drive and be able to
\nelect our state leaders peacefully,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She said the commemoration of the government-backed takeover
\nof PDI headquarters should focus on the antiviolence campaign, a
\ncampaign which all party members and the entire nation should
\nsupport.<\/p>\n
\"With all of this violence we are nothing,\" she said to the
\ncheers of the audience.<\/p>\n
She condemned the 1996 takeover, which triggered unrest
\nthroughout Jakarta. Five people died in the violence and 23
\npeople are still reported as missing.<\/p>\n
\"The July 27, 1996, tragedy does not reflect the attitude of
\ntypical Indonesians,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Similar sentiments were aired by Abdurrahman Wahid, the
\nchairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim
\norganization. He called on PDI Perjuangan supporters to forget
\nthe past and start to think about the problems of the future.<\/p>\n
\"I hope Mbak Mega and her supporters will not maintain their
\nanger because the present military is not the same as the old
\nmilitary which mistreated them in the past,\" he said in Dili on
\nTuesday. \"Let bygones be bygones.\"<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, city police arrested at least 40 street children
\nand four students from Tarumanegara University in Grogol, West
\nJakarta, on Monday evening. The suspects were allegedly recruited
\nto disrupt Tuesday's commemoration, lawyer Daniel Panjaitan of
\nthe Jakarta Legal Aid Institute told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Daniel also said a volunteer from the Commission of Missing
\nPersons and Victims of Violence was arrested while accompanying
\nhundreds of people who staged a rally to commemorate the 1996
\nincident.<\/p>\n
Outside Senayan Stadium, some 400 protesters from the People's
\nStruggle Forum and the Labor Committee for Reform Action staged
\ndemonstrations on Jl. Imam Bonjol after being denied access to
\nthe office of the General Elections Commission.<\/p>\n
The protesters demanded the General Session of the People's
\nConsultative Assembly reject incumbent President B.J. Habibie's
\npresidential nomination, and instead elect Megawati president.<\/p>\n
Protesters refused to speak with commission member Andi A.
\nMallarangeng, accepting instead the police's offer to meet with
\nJacob Nuwawea, the head of the committee which organized the
\ncommemoration of the 1996 incident.<\/p>\n
Nuwawea, however, disappointed protesters by saying their
\nstreet rallies had nothing to do with PDI Perjuangan and he
\ntrusted the police to take whatever actions they deemed
\nnecessary.<\/p>\n
Commemorations of the July 27 takeover were held in several
\ncities in Java and in the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang.<\/p>\n
In Bandung, some 50 activists from the Democratic People's
\nParty staged a demonstration in front of the West Java Provincial
\nLegislative Council building, demanding a thorough investigation
\ninto the 1996 incident. They also demanded legal prosecution of
\nformer president Soeharto and an end to the military's
\nsociopolitical function.<\/p>\n
In Banyumas, Central Java, some 1,000 PDI Perjuangan
\nsupporters expressed their support for Megawati's presidential
\nbid by placing their bloody thumbprints on a 1.5-kilometer long
\nbanner which was stretched along the city's main street of Jl.
\nBank.<\/p>\n
In Semarang, some 200 PDI Perjuangan supporters held a mass
\nprayer at the party's local office on Tuesday to commemorate the
\n1996 incident.<\/p>\n
\"We all hope that the third anniversary of the 1996 unrest
\nwill trigger an objective and honest investigation into the
\ntragedy,\" local PDI Perjuangan chairman Ismoyo said.<\/p>\n
In the neighboring town of Solo, some 300 party supporters
\nstaged a theatrical performance depicting the 1996 incident.<\/p>\n
In Yogyakarta, thousands of party supporters held a mass
\nprayer at Parang Kusumo beach, some 30 kilometers south of here.
\nMeanwhile, hundreds of students from Gadjah Mada University and
\nAtma Jaya University staged a demonstration in front of the
\nYogyakarta Provincial Legislative Council, demanding a thorough
\ninvestigation into the incident and the revocation of the
\nmilitary's dual function.<\/p>\n
In Surabaya, some 1,000 members of PDI Perjuangan's task force
\nheld a ceremony commemorating the tragedy in the morning. Some
\n5,000 party members and supporters then took to the city's main
\nstreets in the afternoon to condemn the incident.<\/p>\n
However, their march failed to attract large numbers of people
\nas rumors spread throughout the city that there would be massive
\nunrest on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Several shops and kiosks at Tunjungan Plaza, Surabaya Plaza,
\nJembatan Merah Plaza and Mega Mall remained closed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In Ujungpandang, some 40 activists from the Makassar Action
\nCommittee for Humanity Solidarity commemorated the 1996 incident
\nby staging rallies in front of the South Sulawesi gubernatorial
\noffice, the office of the South Sulawesi Provincial Legislative
\nCouncil and Wirabuana Regional Military Command Headquarters.
\n(04\/27\/43\/44\/har\/jun\/imn)<\/p>",
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