Jakarta prepares for tense period over the weeks
JAKARTA (JP): The capital has begun bracing for the influx of radical pro-Abdurrahman Wahid supporters, with no less than 42,000 security officers readied to prevent any violence.
City Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bahrul Alam said on Sunday that the 42,000 security officers are a combination of Police, Indonesian Military (TNI) and city administration security personnel.
Tension is expected to peak with the planned Istigoshah mass prayers on April 29 and convening of the House of Representatives (DPR) plenary session on April 30.
"Of the 42,000, two-thirds of them will be deployed across Greater Jakarta. We are pulling out all stops to secure the capital.
"These security measures are part of a police security operation ... which will last until May 10 this year," Anton told reporters at city police headquarters.
He added that police would upgrade daily checks in and around the DPR building compound over coming days.
"I strongly urge everybody, including legislators, not to bring sharp weapons or firearms, intended for their own security, since we are there to protect legislators," Anton said.
He added that about 120 police officers would be assigned to a special security force to guard individual legislators who claim to have received threats.
Depart
Meanwhile, outside the capital, preparations for the journey to Jakarta were well underway.
In Surabaya, East Java, Wiro Sugiman, coordinator of the Defenders of Truth (FPK), claimed that the departure of 3,000 volunteers would begin on Tuesday.
He claimed that the group had compiled a total of 60,000 signatures, but did not specify how many would end up departing for Jakarta.
The East Java branch of NU is also expected to send some 1,500 people to join the mass prayer on April 29 and observe the House plenary session the next day.
"At our last coordination meeting (it was decided that) there would be one bus from each district and they would leave for the capital on Friday," NU branch secretary Sunarto said on Sunday.
"We agreed to leave on Friday, join the mass prayer on Sunday, then take a one-day break to watch the plenary session on Monday before returning home," he remarked.
Separately, Pagar Nusa, a martial arts unit of the National Awakening Party (PKB), claimed that it would send thousands of its members from across Central Java to Jakarta to support Abdurrahman.
"Currently, we are coordinating the deployment and will definitely send thousands of our fighters to the capital," the organization's branch chairman Taufik C.H. said in Semarang, Central Java, on Sunday.
He said that the fighters had been both physically and mentally trained to support the current government.
Despite the mobilization, PKB legislator Effendi Choiry assured on Sunday that NU would only condone the gathering in Jakarta as a peaceful mass prayer.
"It will be a mass prayer. But still we will fight the political elite should they try to topple Abdurrahman in an unconstitutional manner," Effendi said.
Minister of Defense Mahfud MD said on Saturday in Cilacap that the government cannot prevent the supporters from traveling to Jakarta, as long as they did not commit anarchic actions.
Meanwhile, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri said during an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) meeting here on Sunday, party supporters should not join the mass gathering.
PDI Perjuangan deputy secretary general Pramono Anung also told the Post that the party had canceled a mass gathering on Saturday in Surabaya, planned to commemorate 100 years since the birth of former president Soekarno.
"We do not want to be trapped in such a mass mobilization," he said.(dja/har/nur/45)