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