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)