23 arrested over arson, attack on journalists
TEGAL, Central Java (JP): Police have arrested 23 people in connection with Thursday's arson of the home of a National Mandate Party (PAN) executive, and the attack on several journalists here.
The Central Java Police's Insp. Gen. Erwin MAP told reporters on Friday that four of those arrested had been named suspects.
He said that what the police was handling -- the arson and the attack on the journalists -- was "purely a criminal case."
"We don't want to interfere in anything political that might be related to the case," he said.
Some 300 people, grouped as the Diponegoro Force and believed to be supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid, staged a violent protest in Tegal on Thursday against Amien Rais, the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), midway through a ceremony to inaugurate members at the party's office in Tegal.
The protesters started off by assaulting six reporters covering the protest, injuring them all -- one suffered a severe concussion -- and then moved on to burn PAN flags, Didi told reporters.
Following the demonstration, protesters marched to the residence of the newly elected chairman of PAN in Tegal, Djohan Firdaus, in the Talang district, some four kilometers from the local PAN office, and set fire to his furniture, motorcycle and electronic equipment inside his home.
PAN executives arrived on Thursday at the National Police Headquarters to formally report the Tegal incident.
From Jakarta, National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro said he has instructed the Central Java Police chief to take the strictest action against anybody who provokes, or resorts to creating chaos.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi said the incident could have been a result of the recent "verbal war" among the political elite of certain parties.
"When political figures make controversial statements, those statements are used as fuel for the masses, and the masses end up acting on those statements, and this creates chaos," Didi said.
As of Friday, one of the journalists beaten in the protest, Agus Wijanarko from Republika daily, was still in coma. He is in the intensive care unit at Harapan Anda Hospital.
The other five journalists, Yon Daryono from private television station RCTI, Thomas from private television station TPI and Marsis from Pikiran Rakyat daily, Bambang Mudjono from Radar Tegal as well as Sarjono from Sinar Pagi suffered numerous injuries after they were beaten with iron bars by the protesters.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the provincial chapter of the National Awakening Party (PKB) in Central Java, Abdul Kadir Karding, said he regretted the incident. He said the violence was a result of provocation by those who wanted to blemish the image of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and PKB.
Local NU chairman Muhammad Adnan stressed that the rally was not organized by his organization and he believed that the anarchy was "a spontaneous reaction of the people who see the political elite still trying to topple President Gus Dur".
In Jakarta, both the Association of Independent Journalists and Indonesian Journalists Association condemned the actions taken against the reporters.
The Indonesian Police Watch also denounced the disturbance, saying the actions were crimes and therefore the police had to immediately launch investigations.
One of the group's executives, Rashid Harsuna Lubis, said in a statement that his group would continuously monitor police steps in handling the Tegal incidents "until the perpetrators of the fray are all arrested and tried". (ylt/har/emf/45)