Megawati camp refused July 27 meeting permit
JAKARTA (JP): National Police chief Lt. Gen. Roesmanhadi said yesterday he would not allow the Indonesian Democratic Party affiliated to Megawati Soekarnoputri to hold a meeting to commemorate the bloody incident of July 27 because the group are not officially recognized by the government.
He said a permit could not be given to a group which was not officially recognized by the government.
"We received a request to hold such a meeting, but it is not clear which (PDI) group submitted it," he said.
There are currently two PDI groups, one of which is led by Megawati and the other by Soerjadi. Megawati was appointed as the party's chairwoman at a congress in Surabaya, East Java, in 1993. Soerjadi was subsequently appointed chairman at a government- backed congress held in Medan, North Sumatra, in 1996.
"Law No.8/1985 states clearly which political parties are legal in this country. The government only recognizes the PDI led by Soerjadi," Roesmanhadi told a media conference.
He reiterated that commemorating the event in public would only lead to chaos.
"The commemoration, if held in the National Monument park, the Senayan complex, or any other public area, would attract a mass gathering. Who's going to guarantee public safety then?
"If they want to make it an indoor activity, please, go ahead. But they still need to obtain official permission to do so," he added.
Meanwhile, Jacob Nuwa Wea, chairman of the pro-Megawati supporters' commemoration meeting committee, vowed yesterday that his party would press ahead with its plan despite not having written permission from the authorities.
Jacob argued the meeting could go ahead because Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman had already given his permission.
"The chief personally told me during our meeting last week to go ahead with the plan. He asked participants in the meeting to maintain order before, during and after the event," he said.
Jacob said the commemorative meeting was scheduled to be held on Monday between 1 p.m and 3 p.m. at Istora Senayan and was expected to be attended by around 5,000 members and sympathizers of the party.
He said that he and Noegroho had agreed to terms which the party and all participants at the meeting must abide by.
For example, the meeting is exclusively for PDI members and sympathizers from Jakarta's five mayoralties.
"It's not a party. It's supposed to commemorate the tragic ambush (of the PDI's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, 58) in 1996. It's to remember our friends and relatives who died or went missing during and after the attack," Jacob said.
Twenty seven PDI activists reportedly went missing after the incident. Seven have since reappeared, but 20 are still missing.
Eyewitnesses said the July 27 incident began when stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown at Megawati supporters inside the building. They retaliated by throwing stones back at their assailants. Riot police reportedly watched the confrontation for a considerable time before finally storming the building.
Jacob said he had also agreed that those attending the meeting would only wear the party's T-shirt bearing Megawati's image. Participants must meet at the party's branch offices to obtain identification stickers for cars and buses which they plan to use to travel on to Senayan.
Participants would not be allowed to chant slogans on their way to and from the meeting, undertake a march, use bamboo, wood or metal flag poles and not to carry non-plastic water containers into the Istora building, he added.
Jacob said he had guaranteed Noegroho that participants in the meeting would observe this code of conduct.
"All of us will certainly behave ourselves and not create chaos. If there is any chaos, it will have been started by those who don't like or want us to hold the meeting," he said.
He said the party had chosen to hold the commemorative meeting indoors and not at the party headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro because the site was still officially a crime scene in the authorities investigation of the 1996 incident. (edt/cst)