Hired help in PDI office takeover sue Soerjadi

Hired help in PDI office takeover sue Soerjadi

JAKARTA (JP): The leaders of the government-backed faction of
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) are facing a Rp 1.2 billion
(US$426,000) lawsuit filed by 51 people they had allegedly hired
last year to brutally take over the party's headquarters from
Megawati supporters.

In the suit filed at the Central Jakarta District Court
yesterday, the plaintiffs said Soerjadi and his cadres had broken
a promise to pay them Rp 200 million in cash after the takeover.

They also charged that they had been deceived, claiming that
Soerjadi's cadres had told them that their mission was to
reinforce the Megawati loyalists defending the office, not take
it over.

Their lawyer, R.O. Tambunan, said the plaintiffs were Megawati
supporters who had been deceived by Soerjadi.

"They regret the attack... They were deceived into raiding the
party's headquarters without realizing what they had done until
it was too late," he said.

The plaintiffs said they were among about 430 people that
Soerjadi had recruited to take over the headquarters from
Megawati loyalists.

Soerjadi toppled Megawati Soekarnoputri's PDI leadership in a
congress in Medan in June last year. Megawati and her supporters
have declared the congress unconstitutional.

Hundreds of reportedly Soerjadi supporters backed by security
personnel raided the headquarters on July 27, triggering a bloody
riot that the National Commission on Human Rights has said took
at least five lives, injured 124 and left 23 missing.

Earlier this year, 124 of the people who had defended the
headquarters for Megawati were tried on charges of disobeying a
police order to vacate.

One hundred and sixteen were sentenced to between one month
and four months in jail. Eight were acquitted. They have
unsuccessfully demanded that Soerjadi's supporters be tried as
the aggressors in the takeover.

They have tried in vain to have police investigate the roles
of PDI chief Soerjadi, vice chairwoman Fatimah Achmad, secretary-
general Buttu R. Hutapea, Jakarta branch chairman Lukman F.
Mokoginta and Jakarta branch secretary Sahala P. Sinaga.

Tambunan said that many of the attackers were members of the
At-Taubah foundation which rehabilitates delinquent youths. The
foundation's leader, Seno Bella Emyus, is one of the plaintiffs
being represented by Tambunan.

The lawsuit states that Soerjadi and his cadres had asked Seno
on July 12 to prepare his foundation's members to raid the party
headquarters in Central Jakarta.

"In that meeting, the defendants promised to give them Rp 200
million after the mission was accomplished," the lawsuit stated.

Seno received an Rp 11.5 million advance payment, and was
promised the remainder after the takeover, the lawsuit states.

The day before the raid, Seno gathered 400 supporters in
Cibubur, East Jakarta, then led them to the Jakarta police
headquarters, where Soerjadi and his cadres told them the raid
was meant strengthen the Megawati supporters' defense.

They were then taken to Kartika Plaza hotel in Central Jakarta
where they were given T-shirts with the inscription "Medan
congress supporters".

The plaintiffs said they knew they had been fooled after they
had begun raiding the party's headquarters but that they could
not escape. (05)