ABRI vows to crack down on rioters
JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung vowed yesterday to continue cracking down on rioters to restore public order after 206 of them had been arrested as of yesterday.
Feisal said "irresponsible persons or groups" have exploited the internal conflict in the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) to create anarchy and threaten the nation's stability.
Feisal and senior military officers called a press conference at the Ministry of Defense and Security to review the rioting that broke out Saturday after the violent takeover of party headquarters. Smaller riots continued sporadically yesterday.
On hand were Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso, Chief of ABRI's Sociopolitical Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Hartono and city police chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata.
The military leaders held the press conference after a top leadership meeting to review the situation.
Twenty six people were injured; 22 buildings were badly damaged, including seven banks and an agriculture ministry building; 91 vehicles, including 5 buses, and two motorcycles were incinerated, Sutiyoso said.
According to Sutiyoso, a Soerjadi supporter died of a heart attack and a security guard of a state-owned bank died after falling from the seventh floor of his vandalized office in separate incidents during Saturday's chaos.
However, there were varying accounts of fatalities, with some sources saying the number ranged between three to 46.
Earlier Chief of the Central Jakarta Police Lt.Col. Abubakar Nataprawira declined to give figures, but said the victims of the clash were taken to the police hospital in Kramatjati, East Jakarta. Other police officers in the field said the injured were also being treated at the Cikini Hospital and Gatot Subroto Army Hospital.
"We anticipated all these consequences," Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung said, adding that the rioting did not spread to other cities.
"Many houses were pelted with stones and the innocent terrorized," Feisal said. "We are determined to continue arrests."
Feisal said the military would not tolerate any activities that may lead to anarchy. He also called on PDI activists to refrain from conducting any activities that may be used by irresponsible people.
Tensely calm
The city was tensely calm yesterday as sporadic protests over the takeover of the PDI headquarters by a rival camp entered the second day.
Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso witnessed the arrest of 30 people protesting at the Legal Aid Institute near PDI headquarters.
They burned wood and anything inflammable on the road near the premises as about 200 activists gathered and chanted anti- government slogans.
Separately, Syarwan Hamid told senior editors of local mass media yesterday that ABRI is determined to restore public order in Jakarta "at all costs".
When asked about the material loss caused by the riots, Syarwan said that it was an unimportant issue because what concerned ABRI most was the damage to Indonesia's image as a good place for world economies to do business.
He said the ABRI leadership is currently "solid" as was obvious from Saturday night's meeting in which all key leaders were present.
Syarwan said earlier that the PDI's internal rift has been exploited by interest groups wanting to create chaos and possibly topple the government.
He mentioned some of the groups as Democratic People's Party, Center for Labor Strife, United Indonesian People and United Indonesian Farmers.
He pointed out that the organizations were "structurally" identical to a number of groupings which dominated the domestic political scene just before the 1965 abortive coup attempt by the now-outlawed Indonesian Communist Party. (team)