Avoid violence: Megawati

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)