Banser ready to fight Soeharto followers

Banser ready to fight Soeharto followers

SURABAYA (JP): Leading figures of Banser civilian security
guards said on Tuesday they were ready to fight followers of
former president Soeharto.

Banser is under Nahdlatul Ulama's Muslim youth organization
(Ansor).

Mohammad Rofik, leader of the organization's East Java branch,
said that 150,000 Banser members in the province were now on
alert.

"We are waiting for further instructions from the NU head
office," Rofik said.

The statement came in the wake of President Abdurrahman
Wahid's statement last week that Banser members just "slept all
day" while people were busy mobilizing pro-Soeharto rallies".

Rallies in support of Soeharto, who is currently being tried
for graft, have been staged on Jakarta streets and have
occasionally ended up in fierce street battles with student
protesters.

Some, including top government officials, have expressed
belief that the recent spate of bomb attacks and ethnic violence
in the country were instigated by supporters of Soeharto to
destabilize the government.

Some also believe the violence was carried out in retaliation
to the government's crusade to bring the former ruler to trial.

A deadly bomb blast in the basement parking lot of the Jakarta
Stock Exchange (JSX) building last Wednesday occurred on the eve
of the second hearing of Soeharto's trial.

Abdurrahman, who chaired the NU for 15 years before becoming
president last October, said last week that the students were not
alone in their campaign for justice. He seemed to be implying
that Banser should stand by the students.

In Magelang, Central Java, on Monday, local Ansor leader
Dulohori Arief said he was ready to mobilize NU members to face
"New Order hard-liners".

"Banser is ready to safeguard Soeharto's graft trial and we
support the students in their campaign for supremacy of the law,"
Dulohori said. (nur/har)