Govt releases Bintang, Pakpahan from prison

Govt releases Bintang, Pakpahan from prison

JAKARTA (JP): The government released yesterday two prominent
political prisoners, former legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas and
labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan, under the full glare of both local
and foreign media.

The two men walked out of Cipinang Penitentiary in East
Jakarta at 10 p.m. and into the arms of relatives who had been
waiting since the morning, when Minister of Justice Muladi
visited the prison and delivered the news about the impending
release.

Hundreds of rights activists and bystanders formed an
expectant crowd in front of the prison while, inside, Muladi told
the media that he would go directly from the prison to the State
Secretariat to wait for the presidential decrees on the releases.

Bintang's wife, Ernalia, said the decree on Bintang's release
was delivered at 9:30 p.m.

Well-wishers outside the prison sang and danced and people
spilled out onto a roadway, blocking traffic.

Dozens of armed military personnel stood guard in front of the
prison.

Freeing the two men is the first major political reform
implemented by President B.J. Habibie, who took office Thursday
after former leader Soeharto resigned.

Earlier yesterday, Muladi told members of the media covering
the first meeting of the cabinet under President B.J. Habibie
that the President had agreed to release the two prisoners and
would look into the possible release of other political
prisoners.

Bintang, chairman of the outlawed Indonesian Democratic Union
Party, was sentenced to a 34-month term in May 1996 after being
convicted of insulting then president Soeharto during a lecture
at a German university.

Pakpahan, chairman of the independent Indonesian Prosperous
Labor Union, was sentenced to a four-year term for allegedly
instigating a labor riot in 1994.

Bintang, who met Muladi at the jail yesterday, told reporters
that the political prisoners imprisoned in Cipinang and the
government had basically agreed on three matters.

"(First), the government will study the case of each political
prisoner and there will be a selective and gradual release," he
said.

Second, it was agreed the jailing of the political prisoners
was due to "mistakes of the previous government" and therefore
their release was a human rights issue, Bintang said.

Third, the government should apologize to political prisoners
in a bid to "restore" their reputations, he added.

Muladi said prisoners in certain categories would not be
released, including those jailed for their involvement in the
1965 communist coup attempt and those linked to the outlawed
Indonesian Communist Party.

In reply to a journalist's question, Muladi said the
government viewed jailed East Timor separatist leader Jose
Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao as one of those not eligible for
release.

Muladi said the selective and gradual release of other
political prisoners would be carried out "as soon as possible".

"If the government breaks its promise to release political
prisoners gradually, I will stage rallies on the streets,"
Pakpahan said.

The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation estimated there were more
than 200 political prisoners in Indonesia, excluding alleged
communists.

"This reform is only a half measure because the government did
not release all political prisoners... this is just artificial
reform," chairman of the outlawed Democratic People's Party
Budiman Sudjatmiko said from inside his cell.

Budiman was sentenced to 13 years after being found guilty of
subversion last year for discrediting Soeharto's New Order
government.

In Bandung, West Java, some activists called for the
reputation of late Lt. Gen. Hartono Rekso Dharsono -- a soldier
and diplomat who became a staunch critic of Soeharto's government
-- to be restored. He was sent to jail in 1984 on charges of
subversion, and was freed in 1990.

Dharsono died in 1996 but was stripped of the right to be
buried in a heroes' cemetery because of his imprisonment.
(byg/prb/43)