Military gives safety assurance
Military gives safety assurance
JAKARTA (JP): The military guaranteed national security
yesterday despite the rising incidence of mob violence ahead of
the May 29 general election.
Armed Forces (ABRI) spokesman Brig. Gen. Slamet Supriadi said
the public had nothing to fear because the authorities had
security under control.
"ABRI has made an all-out effort to maintain security so that
people can go about their daily business without fear," Supriadi
told a press conference on its assessment of the campaign, which
began on April 27 and will end on May 23.
The campaign has been marred with violence, mainly involving
United Development Party (PPP) and Golkar supporters in Java.
Seventy-three people have died, mostly in traffic accidents
during unruly street rallies.
The Election Supervision Committee's chairman, Singgih, said
recently that all three parties -- the PPP, Golkar and the
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) -- had violated campaign rules.
Singgih said traffic offenses topped the list of violations,
followed by the removal of party flags, which has caused many of
the recent clashes.
Supriadi warned that, as the election campaign wound up,
political tension was running high and fear was increasing. He
called on the parties to tone down their campaigns.
"We urge all contestants to shun campaigns which scare people,
cause traffic jams and endanger lives," Supriadi said.
"Contenders should not provoke each other."
The Armed Forces said that 73 people had died in campaign
violence and accidents by May 15.
Supriadi warned that "antiestablishment groups" were seeking
to foil the election. The authorities had identified the groups,
which he refused to name.
The Armed Forces has documented 914 cases of campaign-rule
violations, 145 did not involve party supporters.
Supriadi said this meant that rallies had been infiltrated by
people wanting to see the election fail.
No major campaign incidents were reported yesterday. The rift-
ridden PDI attracted small turnouts to its rallies in Java.
In Bogor, scores of Megawati Soekarnoputri's supporters roamed
the streets wearing white T-shirts with her pictures. They
stopped PDI supporters from the rival party faction under
Soerjadi and forced them to change their red T-shirts for
Megawati T-shirts.
In another area in Bogor, a clash reportedly erupted between
the two rivaling groups and causing injuries to several people.
In Jakarta, traffic flowed normally as few PDI supporters took
to the streets after the last two days' huge rallies by Golkar
and PPP faithful.
The government-recognized PDI chief Soerjadi thrilled
supporters in the Central Java town of Pati with his scathing
criticism of government protection for big business.
Soerjadi said that economic disparity was widening because the
government provided facilities and protection to conglomerates
but did little to help small business.
"Conglomerates are expanding but small business is slowly
dying because the government's economic policy only benefits big
business," he said.
Soerjadi promised to try and change this policy to empower
small business.
In Yogyakarta, about 50 students at the Indonesian Islamic
University demonstrated their anger at Thursday's attack on the
university by Golkar supporters.
The banner-waving demonstrators condemned the attack, urging
the election committee to reprimand Golkar and demanding that
local Golkar leaders apologize for the incident.
But Golkar functionaries claimed the attack was carried out by
"infiltrators" who meant to tarnish the party's image.
Elsewhere in Yogyakarta, the General Elections Institute's
secretary, Suryatna Subrata, reiterated the government's
determination to do anything to enforce campaign rules.
He said the government did not want any more street rallies or
violence. (pan/38/24/23)