Military plans further crackdown on PRD activists

Military plans further crackdown on PRD activists

YOGYAKARTA (JP): While the military has vowed to continue its
crackdown on "communist-like movement" activists, human rights
campaigners charged that force had been used by the authorities
in their interrogation of five students arrested here last week.

Budi Santoso of the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Office said here
yesterday that Muhammad Ali, Wisnu Agung, Harry Kurniawan, Eko
Prastowo and Yohannes Librayanto had been released on Saturday,
24 hours after they were arrested, with marks of ill-treatment.
The students had reportedly sought medical treatment after their
release.

Budi and his colleagues picked up the students at the
Yogyakarta police headquarters; the students were earlier
detained at the Yogyakarta military command.

Budi described the students' condition as "appalling". "Their
eyes were black and blue and they had bruises on their faces.
Some had blood spots on their shirts," he said.

Budi quoted one of the students as saying that security
personnel forced them into admitting they were members of the
Democratic People's Party (PRD), a student organization the
military claimed was behind the recent riots in Jakarta.

Budi also alleged that violence had been used against the
students once they were inside a car that transported them from
their campus to the military command.

The students could not be reached for comments since their
relatives picked them up from police headquarters. Another
student organization -- the People's Front for the Salvation of
Democracy -- has stated that the five were its members, not the
PRD's.

The PRD is an umbrella group of student, worker and farmer
organizations that was set up in 1995 to channel pro-democracy
demands. It has been accused of masterminding the violent rioting
that erupted in Jakarta on Saturday, July 27, as well as smaller
waves of protests following the forced takeover of the disputed
headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party.

PRD chairman Budiman Sujatmiko is currently in hiding.

Armed Forces Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan
Hamid had vowed that the military would continue to crack down on
PRD activists.

"The government will continue pursuing them, because they have
to be held accountable for what they did in the `July 27
Incident'," Syarwan said after meeting with foreign envoys here
on Monday. "They were behind the rioting, which has forced the
authorities to arrest hundreds of people."

Syarwan was commenting on reports that Budiman might have fled
abroad.

"Those who had been arrested were only pawns, while the
'brains' behind the rioting have fled from their responsibility,"
he said. "I pity those who had been arrested only because they
were instigated."

There have been varying reports on the number of people
detained, with Syarwan saying 170 people had been arrested as of
Monday.

In Surabaya, Chief of the Brawijaya Military Command Maj. Gen.
Imam Utomo was quoted by Antara as saying that members of PRD and
its wing -- Indonesian Students' Solidarity for Democracy --
might have spread to various regions in East Java.

"I believe there are (PRD members here)," he said. "The
demonstrations of workers in Jombang recently must have been
instigated by PRD."

Imam also said the military is currently pursuing 30 to 40 PRD
members for questioning.

In Banda Aceh, police chief Abdul Hamid Busra also called on
local police to prevent PRD activists from entering Aceh
province.

In Bandung, West Java, students and activists of the Bandung
Legal Aid Office began a peaceful demonstration of concern over
the current situation by fasting.

Meanwhile, National Commission on Human Rights member
Soetandyo Wignyosoebroto said in Surakarta, Central Java that the
commission will go all out in obtaining facts on the rioting and
helping to clarify the actual number of casualties in the
incident. (30/17/swe/har)