Military revokes shoot-on-sight order for rioters

JAKARTA (JP): The military revoked its controversial July 30 shoot-on-sight order for rioters yesterday, saying the city had returned to normal.

Chief of the Jakarta Military Command Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso said the order no longer held because massive riots, like those which rocked the capital on July 27, were unlikely.

"We issued the order for a limited period of time only," Sutiyoso told reporters yesterday after a military ceremony in Tangerang, West Java.

Late last month, Sutiyoso withdrew his troops from the streets of Jakarta. The troops were deployed on July 27, when thousands of people rioted following a raid on the Indonesian Democratic Party's (PDI) headquarters.

Sutiyoso said his troops had done a good job in restoring order to the capital. "Not a single bullet was fired. Everyone followed orders. A good job, isn't it?" he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Meanwhile, the overthrown PDI leader, Megawati Soekarnoputri, has established a new secretariat to replace the PDI headquarters which were taken over by her political foe, Soerjadi, on July 27.

Soerjadi toppled Megawati in a government-sanctioned rebel congress in Medan, North Sumatra, in June. Megawati was democratically elected as the party's leader in an extraordinary congress in 1993.

Megawati has refused to recognize the congress, and claims she is still the party's legitimate leader.

"We started our daily party activities on Sept. 2 at the new secretariat," Kwik Kian Gie, the deposed head of the PDI Research and Development Department told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

The new office is in Condet, East Jakarta. Party activists said the house belongs to a Megawati loyalist.

Kwik, known as one of Indonesia's most prominent economists, said that Megawati had started her daily routine as the leader of the party. This consisted of consolidating the party's leadership and preparing for next year's general election.

About 100 members of the South Jakarta party branch had come to the secretariat for consultation and membership cards, Kwik said.

He said he was optimistic that Megawati's leadership could survive even though the government no longer recognized it.

Megawati is contending the legality of the Medan congress which had the full support of the government and the military. President Soeharto has accepted Soerjadi as the legal leader of the party.

Backed by an impressive team of lawyers, Megawati has filed a lawsuit against the 16 members of her former executive board who organized the congress, Soerjadi and his secretary-general Buttu R. Hutapea, the government and the Armed Forces.

Kwik said that Megawati's faction would hold a press conference Monday to formally open the new secretariat and announce its plans, notably its preparation for next year's general election.

"We have decided to submit our own list of prospective legislators to the General Elections Institute," Kwik said.

Each of the three groups contesting the election -- the United Development Party, Golkar and the PDI -- is supposed to submit a list of legislator nominees to the institute by Sept. 16. (imn)