Budiman, 32 foreigners questioned over seminar

JAKARTA (JP): City police questioned People's Democratic Party (PRD) chairman Budiman Soedjatmiko and 32 foreigners on Friday, for allegedly holding a meeting discussing Indonesian labor issues at an inn located in the Sawangan district of Depok, West Java.

"We had received instructions from Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob to keep an eye on Budiman. My men caught these foreigners and Budiman, holding a meeting on labor issues at the Sawangan Golf inn at Sawangan," Depok Police chief Comr. Amhar Azeth told The Jakarta Post.

"So, we brought them in for questioning. Of course, they resisted at first. But later they gave in. We escorted Budiman and all 32 foreigners to the city police Intelligence Department, in a police truck."

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bahrul Alam said the foreigners had allegedly violated their entry permits.

He added that they were suspected of violating Law No. 2/1992 on immigration.

Amhar added that police and immigration officers raided the inn at about 3 p.m. on Friday, and finally left with Budiman and "his friends" at 5 p.m., for the Jakarta Police Headquarters.

"There were several documents in the hall of the inn, where the meeting was being held. They were confiscated and handed over to city police intelligence officers," Amhar said.

"Immigration has a right to know why foreigners, who are most likely here on tourist visas, held meetings on labor issues, and with Budiman too."

Separately, a local activist told the Post Friday night that the raid involved Anti-communist Alliance.

Earlier, Sofjan and National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi had said that police were keeping an eye on Budiman, whom, they said, was suspected of mobilizing people.

Police said of Budiman that if they found any shred of evidence that he had plans to mobilize people to create chaos in the capital, they would take him in.

Late last month, the house of Budiman's parents in Bogor, where he lives, was terrorized by bomb attacks.

Budiman said last week that the act of terror which was pre- planned as he had earlier received a telephone call from an anticommunist group, stating that they would finish him off, and his family. (ylt/bby)