Military announces the arrest of two other PRD activists

Military announces the arrest of two other PRD activists

JAKARTA (JP): Police in Malang, East Java, have arrested two
more activists of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), a tiny
leftist group the government blames for inciting the July 27 riot
in Jakarta.

Chief of the East Java military command Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo
said yesterday that M. Rizal and Wisnu Ranta Hadi, both aged 20,
were arrested in their lodging house on Thursday evening.

The two men, students at Malang's Muhammadiyah Teachers
Training College, are believed to be leaders of the Malang branch
of PRD, which the military has likened to the outlawed Indonesian
Communist Party.

"They will be released if there is a lack of evidence to
charge them with inciting the riots in Jakarta," Imam told
journalists in Surabaya yesterday.

Thursday's arrests brings the number of student activists
arrested in East Java to seven. All are members of organizations
affiliated to PRD.

Imam said the military is still hunting 30 more PRD and
Student Solidarity for Democracy (SMID) activists from Jakarta it
believes are hiding in East Java.

Among the 30 are 20 students the authorities temporarily
detained when the activists led a major labor demonstration in
Surabaya on July 8, Imam said.

The Surabaya police are still holding three activists
affiliated to PRD arrested during the July 8 labor protest. They
are Coen Husain Pontoh, Dita Indah Sari and M. Sholeh.

The authorities have threatened to charge them with
subversion, the most serious offense in the country; it carries a
maximum penalty of death.

The suspects' lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi said the
authorities' decision to proceed with the subversion charges
lacks strong legal argument, as investigations are still ongoing.

Imam also denied reports that the East Java authorities have
planned to expand their target in the ongoing crackdown on
government critics to include 17 East Java journalists.

"The rumors are baseless. Journalists are friends to us ...
except if they become PRD activists," he said.

Meanwhile, SMID chairman Andi Arif said in a press statement
that he and his fellow activists will turn themselves in provided
the government retracts its accusations that he is "communist"
and "incited the July 27 riot".

He said that the accusations are groundless and that he did
not receive any orders from the PRD to do anything in the run up
to the July 27 incident.

In its first congress, in 1994, he said, SMID adopted the
state ideology Pancasila as its guiding principle but it
transformed the foundation in 1996 into a popular socialist body,
which its activists considered more concrete.

Popular socialism, he argued, was the opposite of communism
because it is adopted by liberal welfare states.

According to Arif, SMID had only between 20 and 30 members in
Jakarta and on July 27, as the organization had its own activity
in Yogyakarta on the same day.

Arif, who finished his studies in sociopolitical science at
Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University last year, vowed to continue
the struggle through underground activities and face the "worst
possibility."

He said he was in his home town in Lampung, southern Sumatra,
on July 27 and found his boarding house room in Yogyakarta had
been raided while he was away.

Chief of the Lampung military regiment Col. A. Sanusi said
yesterday that Andi Arif was still hiding in Lampung but he had
not decided whether to arrest him.

"He (Andi Arif) is still hiding here. He has not gone
anywhere," he was quoted by Antara as saying. "We hope we can
catch him very soon."

Sanusi guaranteed that all exit points have been closely
watched and there is no way the activist will be able to flee
Lampung, let alone go abroad.

The authorities in Lampung have registered 30 people they
suspect are PRD supporters. They, too, are being closely watched
to make sure they do not leave Lampung, Sanusi said.

Separately, the Association of Yogyakarta Students assailed
several human rights and political activists whom it says are
outspoken only in "time of peace but tightlipped in time of
crisis."

In its press statement, it gave credit to activists like
Abdurrahman Wahid, H.J.C. Princen, Sri Bintang Pamungkas,
Baharuddin Lopa, Hendardi, Arbi Sanit and R.O. Tambunan for their
consistent stand over the way the authorities handled the July 27
affair and its aftermath.

But the students said they have not heard anything from other,
usually outspoken, human rights and democracy campaigners such as
Ali Sadikin, Adnan Buyung Nasution and Todung Mulya Lubis. (team)