Akbar and 37 legislators demand police protection

Akbar and 37 legislators demand police protection

JAKARTA (JP): House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar
Tandjung and 37 other legislators have requested protection from
city police in anticipation of worsening security in the capital.

City police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob said on Tuesday that
he received an official letter from Akbar on Monday, requesting a
police escort to accompany him wherever he went.

Besides Akbar, 37 other legislators have asked for police
protection, he said.

"They have asked for police escorts to accompany them wherever
they go," Sofjan said.

Nevertheless, Sofjan could not promise anything, noting that
the city police were now overstretched to cover the whole of
Jakarta following the heightening political tension in the
capital.

"The city police are considering what can be done about this
since we have to think of securing the whole capital and its
people, not only legislators," Sofjan said on Tuesday.

Security concerns have worsened in the capital following an
influx of President Abdurrahman Wahid supporters, mostly from
Abdurrahman's political heartland of East Java.

Some of the president's supporters earlier said openly that
they would deal with legislators from political factions that
were trying to bring down Abdurrahman through the convening of a
special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Sofjan noted that the police expected huge demonstrations
across the capital on Wednesday, when the House convenes a
plenary session and is likely to call for an MPR special session
to impeach the President.

He said that up until Tuesday afternoon, over 9,000 supporters
of the beleaguered President had arrived in the capital by train
and bus from several parts of East Java.

So far, Sofjan said, police had not only tightened security
around the MPR/DPR building in Central Jakarta, but had also
confiscated hundreds of weapons, including whips, slingshots,
stones, machetes, sickles and swords from people. (ylt)