Labor leader wants end to intimidation

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)