Bogus victim of July 27 beaten

Bogus victim of July 27 beaten

JAKARTA: A man claiming to be a victim of the July 27 incident
was beaten up by a real victim of the incident when he tried to
use the latter to extort money from Governor Sutiyoso.

Abdul Gani, 35, the bogus victim, approached a man he did know
at the City Council on Wednesday and asked him whether he was a
victim of the July 27, 1996 incident or not.

The man called Thomas Resmol, who apparently is one of the
real victims of the July 27 incident, admitted that he was one of
the victims.

Abdul Gani then asked Thomas to join his organization, the
Organization for the Prevention of Disintegration, and asked his
help to get Sutiyoso to accept responsibility for the July 27
incident.

The July 27 incident refers to the attack by military and
civilian supporters of Soeryadi, who was Megawati Soekarnoputri's
rival chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), on the
headquarters of the party in Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta on
July 27, 1996.

Abdul Gani showed Thomas a proposal he himself had signed as
secretary general. In the proposal, the organization asked
Sutiyoso to give them a donation otherwise they would try to
scuttle his efforts to be reelected.

Realizing that Abdul Gani had just used him to extort money
from Sutiyoso, Thomas beat up Abdul severely. --JP