C. Java villagers clash with PPP supporters

JAKARTA (JP): Locals in Gandon, Central Java, hurled stones Saturday at a passing convoy of hundreds of United Development Party (PPP) supporters, who retaliated by ransacking the village hall and two houses.

One person was injured in the village in Temanggung regency.

Sources and witnesses said the motorcade of four or five truckloads of PPP supporters were on their way home from a party function in Ambarawa, Central Java, when a group of people operating motorcycle taxis began stoning them.

P.M. Imron of the PPP's Temanggung branch said the convoy stopped and the supporters jumped down to chase their assailants who escaped. The supporters then vented their anger by destroying the hall and several motorcycles.

After the convoy moved off, four PPP executives drove to the village to investigate. There they were attacked by locals. One executive suffered minor injuries.

A villager, Arifin, told The Jakarta Post that the PPP supporters had waved their fingers in the party's sign at the motorcyclists, urging them to do likewise.

He said the motorcyclists had ignored the gesture, but the convoy stopped and the PPP supporters jumped down to chase them.

"They were chased because they refused to make the one finger sign as the supporters had demanded, and so they (the locals) attacked the four PPP members who arrived later," Arifin said.

Earlier this month, another clash involving PPP members erupted in Gandon, a tobacco-producing town, about 65 kilometers south of the Central Java capital of Semarang.

The PPP supporters later clashed with supporters of the dominant Golkar at Ngimbrang village, Bulu subdistrict.

Seven motorcycles, a car and a house were damaged during the riot in Ngimbrang, while eight of the parties' supporters were wounded.

Clashes among supporters of the PPP, Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party have recently erupted in four other Central Java towns: Pekalongan, Wonosobo, Rembang and Surakarta.

The three parties will contest the May 29 general election to vie for 425 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives. Election campaigning will officially start on April 27; from this day on until the last day of campaign on May 23, the ban on street rallies is effective. (har/aan)