Attacks on Golkar offices continue

Attacks on Golkar offices continue

SURABAYA (JP): The supporters of President Abdurrahman "Gus
Dur" Wahid continued on Thursday to vent their rage against what
they see as a conspiracy to unseat the President by vandalizing
another Golkar Party office, this time in Lamongan, situated some
40 kilometers northwest of here.

Thousands of people marched to the Golkar office while yelling
anti-Golkar slogans and started pelting the building with stones.
The building's windows were shattered and some of its roof tiles
were dislodged.

The protesters also vandalized the Lamongan regency offices in
an effort to force the regency secretary Ena Sumarna to sign a
statement acknowledging that the Golkar building belonged to the
people.

Police managed to disperse the crowd before further violence
took place.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar
said President Abdurrahman would visit the East Java coastal town
of Pasuruan, some 60 kilometers southeast of Surabaya, on Friday.

"He wants to meet the people who really support him and
Pasuruan is a good choice as it's a major center of support for
Gus Dur," Wimar told a press briefing after a Cabinet meeting on
Thursday.

"He wants to make sure that his followers are conducting
themselves in a peaceful manner, and this will make it easier --
should any such violence occur again -- to make the distinction
between his real followers and the people who exploit the
commotion in the streets," Wimar said, referring to the violent
attacks on Golkar offices in East Java by the President's
supporters on Wednesday.

When asked whether the President believed that the people
involved in Wednesday's violence were not his real supporters,
Wimar said: "(The President) can't express this kind of analysis
or his suspicions in public, but as the President, of course he
has to take every possibility into consideration."

However, later on Thursday, the President played down the
significance of his planned visit to Pasuruan.

"I know that my visit will only be able to stop the fighting
for one or two days," Abdurrahman said before a meeting with
university students.

Other attacks

In Yogyakarta, at least 350 protesters sealed the Yogyakarta
Golkar offices on Jl. Jenderal Sudirman here on Thursday.

Braving a downpour, they urged the police officers guarding
the building to let them "quarantine" the offices.

After long negotiation, the protesters managed to approach the
building and posted up a piece of black paper which read, "This
office is sealed off by the people".

Similar actions were reportedly also conducted by
Abdurrahman's supporters in the town of Nganjuk and in Sampang,
Madura Island, both in East Java. The mobs also threw stones at
the Golkar offices in both towns before being brought under
control by the police.

Thursday's actions reflected the anger felt by Abdurrahman's
supporters in East Java. They had earlier vandalized the Golkar
offices in Gresik and torched the Golkar offices in Surabaya,
Malang and Mojokerto.

Abdurrahman's supporters had previously also blocked roads in
Banyuwangi and Situbondo and blockaded the port of Ketapang in
Banyuwangi as part of their protest against the House of
Representatives' (DPR) censure of the President over the Bulog
and Brunei scandals.

Abdurrahman, born in Jombang, East Java, chaired the country's
largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), for 15 years
before being elected the country's fourth President.

Most East Java towns are known as NU strongholds.

Meanwhile, Surabaya City Police chief Sr. Comr. Suharto said
that eight people had been arrested for the looting and torching
of Golkar's East Java headquarters in Surabaya on Wednesday.

According to Suharto, seven of the suspects were being
detained by the Surabaya City Police, while another suspect was
being held by the South Surabaya police precinct. "They were all
caught in the act."

Reports from Bandung said that some 800 police officers had
been sent to East Java on Wednesday to help the East Java Police
deal with the demonstrations. Deputy National Police chief Sr.
Comr. Panji Atmasudirdja admitted that the officers should have
been sent days before the Golkar offices in Surabaya were burned
down.

PRD and ulemas

Enraged by the spate of attacks on Golkar offices, a deputy
chairman of Golkar, Mahadi Sinambela, accused President
Abdurrahman and the People's Democratic Party (PRD) of being
involved in a conspiracy to destroy Golkar offices.

Mahadi, accompanied by East Jakarta Golkar chairman Ridwan
Isyam, said that several kyai (ulemas) were also involved in the
acts of vandalism.

Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung, who is also House Speaker,
said on Thursday that the President should have condemned his
supporters' actions.

He further said that the anarchic actions perpetrated against
Golkar offices were similar to those orchestrated by the
Communists in 1965.

"Physically, we can point to the People's Democratic Party
(PRD), City Forum (Forkot), Student Action Forumn for Reform and
Democracy (Famred) and City Network (Jarkot) as being the
movements conspiring against us," he asserted.

Meanwhile, several legislators from different factions in the
House voiced their concerns over the attacks saying that such
anarchic actions should have been stopped and the perpetrators
arrested by the security forces.

Still in Jakarta, a retired generals' group called the Post-
1945 Forum set a four-month deadline for the President to improve
his government or otherwise the President should hand over power
to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputeri.

The chairman of the Forum, Lt. Gen. (ret) Harsudiono Hartas,
said that Gus Dur had failed to uphold the spirit of reform by
allowing corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) to continue.

Furthermore, Harsudiono called on the Indonesian Military
(TNI) to prepare itself to answer the "nation's call".

"In a crisis like this, the system and law have been
overthrown. We need resolute action to maintain security across
the nation."

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, a clash erupted between Golkar
supporters and anti-Golkar students from the Makassar Students
Forum and led to the arrest of two anti-Golkar protesters and
five Golkar supporters.

In Semarang, some 40 women grouped in the Semarang Women's
Forum took the streets demanding that President Abdurrahman and
Amien Rais, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly
(MPR), join forces for the sake of the people.

Separately, 500 Abdurrahman supporters staged a protest at the
gate of the Krapyak-Jatingaleh toll road, causing traffic
congestion for four hours. They branded the politicians who
wanted to topple Gus Dur as cowards.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, at least three students were injured in
a mass brawl between two rival groups near the Hotel Indonesia
traffic circle in Central Jakarta, with both of the groups
claiming to represent the cause of reform.

The brawl started just after the students had attended a
dialog with President Abdurrahman Wahid in the nearby Hotel
Indonesia at around 8.45 p.m.

Faisal and Reza, both students in Sahid University suffered
stab wounds and were rushed to St. Carolus' Hospital in Central
Jakarta, while another student, who remains unidentified, was
admitted to Tebet Hospital in South Jakarta.

According to Faisal, he and his friends were walking to a bus
stop on Jl. Imam Bonjol when a group of people, some of whom were
armed, attacked them. Faisal received a cut to his head and a
stab wound in his right hand.

Spokesman for the University of Indonesia's Student Executive
Body (BEM-UI) Burhan denied allegations that his group had
sparked the chaos. "It could be a third party who wanted to fish
in murky waters," he said. (team)