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)