Councillors accused of receiving Rp 16b bribe
JAKARTA (JP): Some 50 activists from the Communication Forum for Relatives of the 124 victims of the July 27, 1996 incident staged a protest at the City Council on Tuesday.
They voiced their regret at the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction's failure to address the hopes of its constituents.
They accused three PDI Perjuangan councillors of having received Rp 16 billion (US$1.95 million) in bribes from Governor Sutiyoso to ensure his governorship until 2002.
"It's such a sad fact," the forum's chairman, Fikri, told reporters.
He identified the three councillors as Binsar Tambunan, chairman of Commission A for Government Affairs; Audi I.Z. Tambunan, chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction; and Agung Imam Soemanto, deputy chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction.
The activists, most of them dressed in black and red clothes, arrived at the City Council at 12:30 p.m.
They also aired their demand that civilians and military officers, allegedly implicated in the incident, be brought to trial.
Earlier in the day, the members went to National Police Headquarters to voice similar demands before heading straight to the city council.
The activists, however, failed to meet all PDI Perjuangan faction members and were only received by Audi Tambunan.
"We met with Audi and regret his statement, which doubts our membership of the forum. He even said that he didn't know us," A. Noldy Manengkey, the forum's spokesman, told reporters.
Despite their disappointment, the forum demanded a meeting with all faction members on Wednesday.
"They promised to see us again tomorrow (Wednesday) for a talk. But if they refuse to see us, we'll come back again," he said.
Noldy accused the councillors of being traitors to their constituents' aspirations and the public in general.
"The July 27, 1996 tragedy was carefully planned. We and our families were the victims. The incident is not PDI Perjuangan's sole interest, but also the entire nation's," he said.
The incident broke when loyalists of the ousted Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) leader Megawati Soekarnoputri were forced out of the PDI Headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, following a government-backed Medan congress in June 1996, which elected Soerjadi as the new PDI chairman, replacing Megawati. Megawati is the country's incumbent Vice President and chairwoman of the splinter party faction, PDI Perjuangan.
The attack on the party headquarters triggered unrest throughout Central Jakarta. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has disclosed that at least five people were killed in the incident, while 23 others are still missing. The commission also linked former president Soeharto's administration and the military to the incident.
Separately, Binsar Tambunan denied the allegations that he had received bribes from Sutiyoso, describing it as slander.
"It's an unhealthy practice. We, the councillors, have to differentiate Sutiyoso as a governor and as the then Jakarta Military commander," he said,
Agung Imam Soemanto, who was the chief of the PDI security task force at the party headquarters, however, struck back, accusing the activists of being hired to ruin the image of the three councillors. (lup)