Military detains five 'communists'

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)