Activists demand Dita's release

Activists demand Dita's release

JAKARTA (JP): Some 30 women workers and activists of the
Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) staged a protest at the
Ministry of Justice to demand the release of fellow activist Dita
Indah Sari who is serving a six-year jail sentence at the
Tangerang Correctional Institution.

They protested on Tuesday against what they believed to be the
government's discriminatory treatment of political prisoners and
jailed labor activists.

"Many political prisoners jailed arbitrarily by former
president Soeharto's regime have yet to be released. One of them
is Dita Sari. We want the government to release her immediately,"
Farahdiba Agust, a labor activist, told The Jakarta Post.

She claimed that Dita, the secretary-general of the Center for
Indonesian Workers' Strife (PPBI), had never been involved in any
political activities and that she had served enough time in jail
because of her fight for workers' welfare.

Dita, along with fellow activist Wilson bin Nurtivas, was
arrested in May 1995 for organizing massive labor rallies in East
Java's capital of Surabaya to demand that the government raise
workers' minimum wages from between Rp 2,800 and Rp 4,750 to Rp
7,000 per day.

In April 1997, the Surabaya District Court sentenced her to
six years imprisonment for subversion. She was also found guilty
of organizing labor demonstrations that generated into riots in
Jakarta in the same year.

Wilson, who was sentenced to five years in jail on the same
charges, was released in July 1998. (rms)