ABRI urged to trace the roots of unrest

ABRI urged to trace the roots of unrest

JAKARTA (JP): One hundred people from various organizations
concerned with the recent spate of riots urged the Armed Forces
(ABRI) yesterday to prevent the unrest from reoccurring.

In a meeting with ABRI Sociopolitical Affairs Chief Lt. Gen.
Syarwan Hamid, they also demanded that the government seek the
root problems that fueled the riots.

"Law enforcers should hand down severe punishments to the
rioters and the masterminds otherwise the incidents could occur
again in the future," a participant said.

The participants also urged ABRI to be more vigilant so that
any unrest could be contained, especially in major cities like
Jakarta.

"Jakarta is the catalyst of national stability where unrest
must not happen," another participant said.

Among prominent figures attending the meeting were chief of
the Communion of Churches Soelarso Sopater, deputy chief of the
ruling Golkar Abdul Gafur, secretary-general of the United
Development Party Tosari Widjaja and student leaders.

The most violent unrest rocked Situbondo in East Java,
Tasikmalaya in West Java, Rengasdengklok also in West Java and
several areas in West Kalimantan.

Last month violence erupted in West Kalimantan when a mob of
5,000 indigenous Dayak tribesmen burned and looted scores of
homes and stores belonging to Madurese resettlers.

The province was rocked by a second uprising on Jan. 29, when
dozens of people wearing masks attacked and looted a dormitory
housing 50 students and then tortured two female workers.

Another incident occurred in the historic subdistrict of
Rengasdengklok last Thursday. That unrest was triggered by a
minor conflict between a group of Moslem youths and a female
resident of Chinese descent. Seventy-six houses and 72 shops were
destroyed by the angry mob. Nineteen cars were damaged and seven
other vehicles burned.

Violence also rocked West Java, in the industrial area of
Rancaekek near Bandung, when thousands of striking workers
wrecked dozens of vehicles within their factory compound. They
were angry because of the company's failure to pay their Idul
Fitri holiday allowance on time.

Separately, a group of eight youth and student associations
also issued a statement of concern over the unrest.

They represented the Indonesian Nationalist Students Movement,
the Indonesian Islamic Students Movement, the Indonesian
Christian Youth Movement, the Children's Association of the
Nahdlatul Ulama Moslems Organization, the Democratic Youth
Movement, the Association of the Sons of the Nahdlatul Ulama
Moslem Organization, the Indonesian Christian Students Movement
and the Union of Indonesian Catholic Students.

They pointed at the yawning socioeconomic gap, abuse of power
and people's lack of maturity in handling social problems as the
main causes of the incidents.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Moslem
Intellectuals (ICMI) B.J. Habibie denied charges that the
politically well-connected organization was behind the violence.

"I did not know anything about the riots until I returned from
abroad. I would become insane if I had to listen to what the 200
million Indonesians have to say (about ICMI)," he said after
seeing President Soeharto. (imn)