ITB alumni stage rally, activists denounce violence

JAKARTA (JP): Twenty-five alumni of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) staged a street demonstration here yesterday to demand a change in the national leadership after police barred them from holding a news conference.

Separately, a group of 20 prominent human rights campaigners, democracy activists and Moslem leaders issued a joint statement urging the public to refrain from using violence to tackle the worsening economic crisis.

ITB alumni leader Zulkarnaen said they were about to read out a media statement in a restaurant at Taman Ismail Marzuki Art Center, Central Jakarta, when the restaurant owner urged them to leave because they had failed to show the necessary police permit.

"Under the current situation, all gatherings need permits from the security authorities," Zulkarnaen quoted the restaurant owner as saying when asked why the meeting was banned.

The alumni, calling themselves Group 234, insisted that no permit was needed for a media conference, but finally complied with the police's request.

"The restaurant manager told us the fate of the place relied on our wisdom," said Zulkarnaen, a former executive director of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi).

More than a dozen police officers had waited at the art center since the early morning.

The group then moved to the nearby Ismail Marzuki monument, where they announced their vote of no confidence in President Soeharto.

"A change of guard in the national leadership is the only way out of the current disaster," Zulkarnaen read the statement signed by 73 people.

They said the recent wave of ethnic, religious and ideological conflicts had been engineered to find a scapegoat to conceal the national leadership's failures.

Group 234 called on the nation to elect a new president in place of 76-year-old Soeharto who has gained overwhelming support from the People's Consultative Assembly to serve a seventh consecutive term.

The 1,000-member Assembly is expected to endorse Soeharto's reelection next month.

The 20 rights campaigners, democracy activists and Moslem leaders warned in their statement that the increasing use of violence when demanding reform would only divert public attention from the actual goal, democracy.

They particularly warned against the exploitation of the highly sensitive ethnic, religious, and societal issues to justify running amok.

"To our Moslem brethren, we would like to remind you that Islam does not allow the use of violence and tyranny against fellow human beings," said the statement signed by lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution and Moslem leader Masdar F. Mas'udi.

The signatories said they people of Chinese descent, who have become the prime target of the riots, should do their best to help end the economic crisis and should not do "unpatriotic" things like fleeing the country.

"Everyone should use their heads in working to end the current crisis," the statement said. (amd/pan)