Military detains five 'communists'

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Java military command announced that it has arrested five "communists" who allegedly have been active underground, Antara reported yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Yusuf Kartanegara, the chief of the Diponegoro Command, said in Semarang that recent underground activities to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia were engineered by the five.

He did not disclose their identities but said they had previously served jail terms of between 10 and 20 years for their links with the now outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

"It just goes to prove that to this day, the supporters of this outlawed party are still around," Yusuf was quoted as saying.

His announcement came only a day after Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung issued a public warning that remnants of PKI are active again in their efforts to disrupt national stability.

Yusuf said the five people were arrested recently in Purwokerto. They were together in one car and the authorities found documents detailing their activities.

He said that the "PKI network, hidden behind the Islamic state veil", in Central Java has now extended to Purwokerto, Boyolali, Kartosuro, Pekalongan and Tegal. They are preying on people with scant religious knowledge, he added.

Asked whether the recent fire at the Central Java Administration's Office of Socio-Political Affairs, which destroyed all of its files about former political detainees linked with the PKI, could have been the work of former communists, Yusuf said the authorities are still investigating.

He said, however, that the authorities have copies of the documents at other agencies. "We haven't lost the files."

There are an estimated 300,000 former political detainees living in Central Java, according to the last official count. (emb)