Avoid violence: Megawati
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri appealed to party members and the entire nation on Tuesday to avoid violence and to help make the upcoming General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly a success.
Her calls were delivered during a ceremony marking the third anniversary of the July 27, 1996, takeover of the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party led by Megawati. The ceremony was held at Senayan Stadium in Central Jakarta.
"I call on all my friends in the Indonesian community to show the international world that we are a civilized nation," Megawati said while addressing some 10,000 party members and supporters.
"We have to promote the antiviolence drive and be able to elect our state leaders peacefully," she said.
She said the commemoration of the government-backed takeover of PDI headquarters should focus on the antiviolence campaign, a campaign which all party members and the entire nation should support.
"With all of this violence we are nothing," she said to the cheers of the audience.
She condemned the 1996 takeover, which triggered unrest throughout Jakarta. Five people died in the violence and 23 people are still reported as missing.
"The July 27, 1996, tragedy does not reflect the attitude of typical Indonesians," she said.
Similar sentiments were aired by Abdurrahman Wahid, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization. He called on PDI Perjuangan supporters to forget the past and start to think about the problems of the future.
"I hope Mbak Mega and her supporters will not maintain their anger because the present military is not the same as the old military which mistreated them in the past," he said in Dili on Tuesday. "Let bygones be bygones."
Meanwhile, city police arrested at least 40 street children and four students from Tarumanegara University in Grogol, West Jakarta, on Monday evening. The suspects were allegedly recruited to disrupt Tuesday's commemoration, lawyer Daniel Panjaitan of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Daniel also said a volunteer from the Commission of Missing Persons and Victims of Violence was arrested while accompanying hundreds of people who staged a rally to commemorate the 1996 incident.
Outside Senayan Stadium, some 400 protesters from the People's Struggle Forum and the Labor Committee for Reform Action staged demonstrations on Jl. Imam Bonjol after being denied access to the office of the General Elections Commission.
The protesters demanded the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly reject incumbent President B.J. Habibie's presidential nomination, and instead elect Megawati president.
Protesters refused to speak with commission member Andi A. Mallarangeng, accepting instead the police's offer to meet with Jacob Nuwawea, the head of the committee which organized the commemoration of the 1996 incident.
Nuwawea, however, disappointed protesters by saying their street rallies had nothing to do with PDI Perjuangan and he trusted the police to take whatever actions they deemed necessary.
Commemorations of the July 27 takeover were held in several cities in Java and in the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang.
In Bandung, some 50 activists from the Democratic People's Party staged a demonstration in front of the West Java Provincial Legislative Council building, demanding a thorough investigation into the 1996 incident. They also demanded legal prosecution of former president Soeharto and an end to the military's sociopolitical function.
In Banyumas, Central Java, some 1,000 PDI Perjuangan supporters expressed their support for Megawati's presidential bid by placing their bloody thumbprints on a 1.5-kilometer long banner which was stretched along the city's main street of Jl. Bank.
In Semarang, some 200 PDI Perjuangan supporters held a mass prayer at the party's local office on Tuesday to commemorate the 1996 incident.
"We all hope that the third anniversary of the 1996 unrest will trigger an objective and honest investigation into the tragedy," local PDI Perjuangan chairman Ismoyo said.
In the neighboring town of Solo, some 300 party supporters staged a theatrical performance depicting the 1996 incident.
In Yogyakarta, thousands of party supporters held a mass prayer at Parang Kusumo beach, some 30 kilometers south of here. Meanwhile, hundreds of students from Gadjah Mada University and Atma Jaya University staged a demonstration in front of the Yogyakarta Provincial Legislative Council, demanding a thorough investigation into the incident and the revocation of the military's dual function.
In Surabaya, some 1,000 members of PDI Perjuangan's task force held a ceremony commemorating the tragedy in the morning. Some 5,000 party members and supporters then took to the city's main streets in the afternoon to condemn the incident.
However, their march failed to attract large numbers of people as rumors spread throughout the city that there would be massive unrest on Tuesday.
Several shops and kiosks at Tunjungan Plaza, Surabaya Plaza, Jembatan Merah Plaza and Mega Mall remained closed on Tuesday.
In Ujungpandang, some 40 activists from the Makassar Action Committee for Humanity Solidarity commemorated the 1996 incident by staging rallies in front of the South Sulawesi gubernatorial office, the office of the South Sulawesi Provincial Legislative Council and Wirabuana Regional Military Command Headquarters. (04/27/43/44/har/jun/imn)