Govt to release more political prisoners

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Muladi said here yesterday that at least 10 more political prisoners will be released within the next 10 days.

Muladi however said that East Timorese separatist leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao would not be among those who would be released.

"It is already clear that Xanana was sentenced under criminal charges and actually this case will depend on a comprehensive solution to the East Timor problem," Muladi told reporters at his office in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

Muladi said that whether or not Xanana would be released should be discussed in the tripartite dialog between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations.

Since the resignation of former president Soeharto on May 21, the new government under B.J. Habibie has taken a more lenient line on political prisoners and released at least 23 including former legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas and labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan.

However the government maintains that those who were convicted of a criminal offense, involved with the now banned Indonesian Communist Party, or due to attempting to change the state ideology Pancasila, will not be released.

Muladi said the number of political prisoners who would be released in the coming days would be larger than earlier batches as the government has been conducting an evaluation of all political prisoners.

"We have been evaluating some 200 political prisoners, but this does mean that we will release them all," Muladi added.

The Ministry of Justice said earlier this month that at least 194 political prisoners are still locked up in prisons throughout the country.

Muladi said that a special team which includes members from his ministry, the foreign ministry, the Attorney General's Office, the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency would submit the evaluation to a meeting of Cabinet members under the coordinating minister for political and security affairs in the coming days, before it would be forwarded to President B.J. Habibie for final approval.

Muladi said the evaluation of the political prisoners was almost complete, but could not give a specific timeframe of when any releases would likely occur. (byg)