Activists call for release of colleague

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)