Labor leader wants end to intimidation

JAKARTA (JP): Labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan appealed for an investigation yesterday into a Molotov cocktail attack on the house of a relative in Medan on Monday.

In a letter sent to the commander of the Armed Forces, Muchtar said he believed the attack was the work of a state intelligence agency, which wanted to intimidate him.

No one was injured in the Monday morning attack.

Muchtar also sent the letter to the minister of defense and security, the National Commission on Human Rights and Commission I of the House of Representatives.

A copy of the letter was made available to The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) was in Medan on Monday to face fresh charges of inciting a massive riot which resulted in major material losses and the death of one businessman in April 1994.

Muchtar, who is a Jakarta resident, said he believed the attackers had chosen the house of Rela Tarigan, a relative, because he usually stays there when he visits Medan.

As it happened, on Sunday night Muchtar said he decided to spend the night at a hotel after evading a number of suspicious- looking people, who had been following him since his arrival in the city.

Muchtar had to be in Medan because the district court reopened the case in relation to the role he allegedly played in the 1994 riot.

Last October, the Supreme Court acquitted him of the charges, overturning the guilty verdict handed down by the lower courts.

The district court sentenced him to three years imprisonment and the Medan High Court reaffirmed the verdict and raised the jail term to four years.

Muchtar had already served six months of the jail term before the Supreme Court ordered his release. (imn)