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)