Communist belts scare Banyumas

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: The police have arrested a 32-year- old trader on charges of selling belts with buckles bearing the communist hammer-and-sickle symbol.

Col. Bambang Munarso, chief of the Banyumas police command, said yesterday that the authorities are tracking down a resident of Medan, North Sumatra, whom they suspect of supplying the belts.

The police confiscated three belts with the communist symbol from the road-side trader identified only as HS, a local resident.

Bambang also reported that the authorities have questioned the director of CV BA in Tegal, identified as Fr, 45, in connection with the recent startling appearance of a communist logo on the screens of computers it sold to Brebes regency government.

He said no one had been detained in connection with the computer screen case. The symbol first appeared on Brebes officials' computer screens on Oct. 1, the day Indonesia commemorates the victory of the state ideology Pancasila over communism in 1965.

Indonesia banned the Indonesian Communist Party after it was blamed for the bloody Sept. 30, 1965 coup attempt. All its symbols and attributes were banned as well. (wah/pan)