Feisal Tanjung blamed for attack on PDI office<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (JP): While his stand-off with his Cabinet minister
\nGen. Wiranto appears to be cooling down, President Abdurrahman
\n\"Gus Dur\" Wahid kept firing at Wiranto's senior, Gen. (ret)
\nFeisal Tanjung, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
In a rare display of anger, the President insisted that Feisal
\nwas fully responsible for two attacks on him and on Vice
\nPresident Megawati Soekarnoputri when he was the armed forces
\nchief. Abdurrahman said he would clarify his statement after he
\narrives home on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\"The fact is that Pak Feisal Tanjung ordered the raid of PDI
\nheadquarters. It was also Pak Feisal who instructed his officer
\nto finish me in Cipasung,\" Abdurrahman said, referring to the
\nforcible takeover of the headquarters of the Megawati-led
\nIndonesian Democratic Party in July 1996 and the conspicuous
\nefforts to unseat Abdurrahman as chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama in
\nthe 1994 congress in Tasikmalaya, West Java.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman also said Feisal, who served as the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI) chief between 1993 and 1998, was involved in the
\nousting of PDI chairwoman Megawati in a government-backed
\ncongress in Medan. This occurred one month before the bloody
\nattack on the PDI offices on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Java.<\/p>\n
The government banned Megawati's PDI faction from the 1997
\nelections for fears that she would emerge a strong contender
\nagainst ex-president Soeharto, who sought his seventh consecutive
\nterm.<\/p>\n
The fall of Soeharto just one month after his reelection in
\nMay 1998 prepared the stage for political reforms that forced the
\ngovernment to allow Megawati's PDI Perjuangan to stand in the
\n1999 elections. Her party earned the most votes in the polls
\nwhich have been hailed as the most democratic elections ever held
\nin Indonesia.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Abdurrahman said that Feisal ordered Wiranto, who
\nwas then the Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) chief, to
\n\"eliminate\" him and Megawati.<\/p>\n
Feisal denied the allegations on the following day, but
\nstopped short of saying the President was telling a lie.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta, the PDI Perjuangan deputy chairman Dimyati Hartono
\nhailed Abdurrahman's assertion saying that the party has
\nsubmitted evidence of Feisal's involvement in the 1996 attack on
\nthe police.<\/p>\n
Besides Feisal, Dimyati said several military officers were
\ninvolved in the attack including former TNI chief of social and
\npolitical affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Syarwan Hamid.<\/p>\n
Political observer Johanes Kristiadi said the President's
\nrevelation serves as momentum to disclose past political crimes
\nmasterminded by the military.<\/p>\n
\"We should start now to open the cases of the past. The fact
\nthat hundreds of people have been killed should not be ignored,\"
\nKristiadi said in a seminar held by PDI Perjuangan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Clarification<\/p>\n
TNI top brass, meanwhile, were cautious of Abdurrahman's
\nstatements.<\/p>\n
Chief of TNI territorial affairs Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo said
\nthat TNI would wait and request clarification from the President
\nwhen he returned from an extended tour of European and Asian
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
Agus said the armed forces would refrain from making any
\ncounter statements as Abdurrahman \"does not aim at TNI to only
\nattack a senior military leader\".<\/p>\n
\"That's head-of-state remarks and we should clearly understand
\nthem. Therefore we will wait for his clarifications regarding the
\n(ex-)president, related generals and TNI. That's what we can do,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
\"And it's too early to speculate on the motive behind the
\nstatement. Gus Dur might have sources for his statement. We will
\nmeet the President as soon as he returns to find common
\nunderstanding,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Agus also stressed that within TNI, verification would also be
\ndone among the related generals.<\/p>\n
Separately, TNI spokesman Air Rear Marshal Graito Usodo
\nsuggested that the armed forces should leave the controversy in
\nthe hands of the related generals as Abdurrahman did not intend
\nto discredit TNI.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile political critic from Research Institute for
\nDemocracy and Peace (RIDep) Hermawan Sulistyo speculated about
\nAbdurrahman's intent to retaliate for what he has suffered in the
\npast.<\/p>\n
\"What happened in the past with pro-democratic activists was
\npolitical. Gus Dur must take care now that he's the President and
\nhis remarks are heard.\"<\/p>\n
Hermawan warned that Abdurrahman was in the early phase of \"a
\nregime cleansing\" with the military becoming the first target due
\nto its close ties with Soeharto. (prb\/jun\/emf)<\/p>",
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