'Military not involved in PDI office takeover'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The military was not involved in the July 27
\ntakeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters, a
\nwitness told a court yesterday.<\/p>\n
PDI Secretary-General Buttu R. Hutapea, testifying for labor
\nleader Muchtar Pakpahan at the South Jakarta district court, said
\nthat the \"dozens of people\" who stormed the headquarters were all
\nhis men led by Alex Widia Siregar.<\/p>\n
\"They'd all been told to adopt the persuasive approach,\" he
\nsaid, denying allegations that his executive board had sought the
\nhelp of the military to train his cadres.<\/p>\n
Pakpahan's lawyer Bambang Widjojanto said that according to
\nthe police dossiers, Hutapea admitted to mobilizing 200 people
\nand not just a \"few dozen\" to take the party office.<\/p>\n
Hutapea replied that he had recruited 200 people but only 20
\nwere involved in the operation to occupy the headquarters from
\nsupporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri.<\/p>\n
When pressed whether his dossier testimony that his men
\n\"clambered the fence into the headquarters yard and pelted stones
\nat the party office\" could be considered \"persuasive,\" Hutapea
\nsaid: \"No, it was not.\"<\/p>\n
When Hutapea told the court that he did not know who was
\ninside the headquarters when it was overrun by his men, people in
\nthe packed public gallery booed and called him a liar.<\/p>\n
He rejected a statement issued by the Indonesian Prosperous
\nLabor Union, an independent labor union led by Pakpahan,
\nfollowing the July 27 incident.<\/p>\n
The union statement, titled Chronology of the Involvement of
\nHoodlums in the Takeover of the PDI Headquarters on Jl.
\nDiponegoro 58, accused Soerjadi, hoodlums and the Armed Forces of
\nforcibly taking over the headquarters controlled by backers of
\nMegawati, who Soerjadi had ousted in a government-sanctioned
\nrebel congress in Medan on June 22.<\/p>\n
The statement, which Pakpahan signed, was used to charge the
\nunion leader with subversion for allegedly undermining the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
When asked to confirm the witness' testimony, Pakpahan said:
\n\"The testimony is irrelevant to this case, but what the witness
\nsaid is all a lie because it contradicts what the witness had
\nsaid in the mass media.\"<\/p>\n
Hutapea admitted to the press that it was he who led the raid
\non July 27 and not the military nor hoodlums as the National
\nCommission on Human Rights had suggested in its October report.<\/p>\n
Sri Bintang<\/p>\n
Meanwhile at the Central Jakarta District Court, politician
\nSri Bintang Pamungkas testified on behalf of Democratic People's
\nParty (PRD) activist Garda Sembiring.<\/p>\n
Bintang, who founded the Indonesian Democratic Union Party
\n(PUDI) on May 29, 1996, said that it was PUDI and not PRD which
\nhad intended to replace President Soeharto's government.<\/p>\n
\"My party wants to overturn the government peacefully and
\nlegally,\" Bintang said.<\/p>\n
Bintang, a former United Development Party legislator, told
\nthe court that PRD had no power to agitate people to topple the
\ngovernment unlawfully.<\/p>\n
\"They are just a bunch of juveniles. How could they agitate
\nolder activists to do that?\" he asked.<\/p>\n
Garda and Budiman, along with seven other PRD activists, are
\nfacing charges of undermining the state ideology Pancasila and
\nattempting to topple the government under the 1963 Subversion
\nLaw. They face a maximum penalty of death.<\/p>\n
Bintang said he assumed that the PRD activists were copying
\nPUDI when they declared themselves a party a month after PUDI's
\nformation.<\/p>\n
\"I think PRD is following my bold step in establishing a
\npolitical party. So, I believe that PUDI's manifesto is better
\nthan PRD's. They are only reiterating what my party had voiced
\nbefore,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Up to now, I've never been charged with leading an opposition
\nparty or having the goal of trying to overthrow the government,\"
\nsaid the University of Indonesia lecturer who has nominated
\nhimself a candidate in next year's presidential poll. (08\/35)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/military-not-involved-in-pdi-office-takeover-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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