Closed-door meeting at Ministry of Justice

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto, Minister of Justice Muladi, Attorney General A.M. Ghalib and deputy chief of the National Police Lt. Gen. Nana Permana held a closed meeting at the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday, and shunned questions from reporters who asked about the nature of their gathering.

The four met for three hours at the Ministry of Justice, but said almost nothing when asked if they had discussed accusations of treason the government has leveled at a group of government critics.

"The meeting was for silaturahmi (to strengthen brotherly ties) because this is the fasting month," Wiranto eventually told reporters hounding him for a comment.

Ghalib said only that the meeting had focused on efforts to minimize crime along roads traversing the north coast of Java.

Muladi refused to comment at all. "I'm sorry. There is no news today because the meeting was a closed one," he said.

Antara quoted reliable sources at the ministry as saying the four met to discuss charges of treason that the government has brought against former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin and Lt. Gen. (ret) Kemal Idris, who is a former chief of the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad).

The two were among several opposition political figures including Sri Bintang Pamungkas who were questioned by police after the bloody clash between students and security personnel at the Semanggi cloverleaf in Jakarta last November.

Their questioning revolved around a communique they released shortly before the tragedy in which they called for President B.J. Habibie's resignation and the dissolution of his administration.

Nana said police were still gathering evidence needed to proceed with the charges against Kemal and his colleagues. (rms)