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)