FBR raid nightspots, make threats

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About 150 members of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) raided a number of nightspots in Cilincing area, Muara Baru and North Jakarta, early Sunday morning, ordering the venue's owners to shut down business within a week.

Mostly on motorcycles, the group of men claiming to be native Jakartans, threatened to return the following week to see whether the bars and entertainment spots -- which they said were immoral and existed due to non-Jakartans -- were still running.

"These places are obscene ... If they have not closed when we return, we will burn them down," one of the members, Situ, said. The group dispersed at about 2 a.m. while patrolling police officers watched from a distance.

None of the nightspots' owners were available for comment.

Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Makbul Padmanegara said on Sunday morning that civilians had no right to take the law into their own hands and that the police would closely investigate the matter.

FBR has become known in the city for their repeated hostility toward the Urban Poor Consortium and its leader Wardah Hafidz, who have strongly criticized the city administration's discriminatory policies toward the poor.

The latest attack by the FBR was on the office of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) last year. A Komnas HAM staff member and several people, who were filing a complaint with the rights commission, were injured.

The Central Jakarta District Court, in April, sentenced six FBR members to six months in jail for instigating the attack and damaging the Komnas HAM office.

Jakartans witnessed a string of attacks on bars and restaurants here by members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) several years ago, until the police arrested FPI's leader Habib Rizieq Shihab on Oct. 16, 2002.

The arrest was made days after the FPI disbanded in the aftermath of the Bali bombings. But the group reformed early this year.

Rizieq said his actions were motivated by Islamic teachings, and that the venues, that sold alcohol, were places of sin.

The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Rizieq to seven months in prison for causing unrest among the community and disturbing public order last August.

Having already spent four months in police custody, Rizieq is set to be released from Salemba Prison, Central Jakarta, in November.