Kontras staffer assaulted at court

JAKARTA: A group of unidentified men assaulted a female staffer of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) after she attended a trial in the East Jakarta District Court on Thursday.

Kontras coordinator Ori Rahman told reporters that the staffer, whose name was withheld, was crossing the parking lot at the courthouse when a man ordered his accomplices to snatch the camera she was carrying around her neck. The woman was beaten when she attempted to resist.

It was the fourth session of the administrative action taken against the government's appointment of A.M. Hendropriyono as the chief of the National Intelligence Agency.

Dozens of men who were loitering around the compound prevented other Kontras staffers and members of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) from chasing the culprits.

It was believed that the assault was premeditated. Kontras and LBH Jakarta deplored the incident which they described as contempt of the law.

Apart from reporting the assault to the Jakarta Police, the two organizations have sent a letter to President Megawati Soekarnoputri calling on her to uphold the law. --JP