Activists call for release of colleague

JAKARTA (JP): A group of activists called for the intervention of the National Commission on Human Rights yesterday to secure the release of a colleague who has been held in connection with last December's riot in Tasikmalaya, West Java.

The activists said Agustiana could not have been involved, let alone masterminded the riot, as the authorities claimed, because he was in Garut when it broke out on Dec. 26.

Agustiana is currently being detained at a penitentiary in nearby Ciamis and is virtually being held incommunicado, the activists told A.A. Baramuli, the head of the commission's committee monitoring human rights.

Agustiana, an activist of Garut's Forum on Youths, Secondary and University Students (FPPMG), was arrested in January and charged with subversion for masterminding the riot.

Representatives from FPPMG were joined yesterday by activists from the Indonesian Society for Humanitarianism, the Nusantara Legal Aid Institute, the Center for Human Rights Information and Education, and Pijar Indonesia in their meeting with Baramuli.

Agustiana has not yet been tried, although the West Java Prosecutors' Office has charged him with subversion.

"The accusation against him is groundless. We demand the government to drop all the charges against him," Andriyanto, a representative of the FPPMG, said.

Baramuli said the commission would write to the West Java High Prosecutors' Office to query Agustiana's fate. "If there's no response in one week, we'll send a fact-finding team," he said.

Angry mobs went on the rampage on Dec. 26, attacking shops, churches, factories and police outposts. Four people were killed in the riot that was estimated to have caused Rp 84 billion (US$ 35 million) in material losses.

The riot was sparked following news that three Islamic boarding school teachers had been beaten by Tasikmalaya police officers. (05)