More political prisoners set to walk free today

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie signed release papers yesterday for 16 young activists, including 15 East Timorese prisoners and detainees, Minister of Justice Muladi said.

The President, through decree No. 85 dated yesterday, granted amnesty to eight political prisoners sentenced by the courts for their involvement in antigovernment protests, and dropped charges against eight East Timorese political detainees.

They are all expected to be released today.

Seven of the eight prisoners are Timorese. They are: Cancio Antoni H.G., Bendito Amaral, Thomas Agusto Coreia, Hermenegildo Dacosta, Jose Gomes, Luis Pereira and Antonio Gusmao Freitas.

They are serving prison terms in East Timor.

The eighth is Coky Aritonang.

"Coky is now serving his sentence in Magelang prison and was sentenced for insulting former president Soeharto," Muladi said after meeting with Habibie at Bina Graha presidential office.

Meanwhile, the eight detainees whose charges were dropped are Juvinal Dos Santos Monis, Fransisco de Deus, Domingos Da Silva, Silverio Babtista Ximenes, Vicente Marques Da Crus, Bernadino Simao, Paulo Silva Carvalho and Paulo Soares.

Just one week after replacing Soeharto in May, Habibie released four political prisoners including labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan and Soeharto's strong critic Sri Bintang Pamungkas.

He also freed Nuku Suleiman, chairman of human rights group Pijar Foundation, and Andi Syahputra, an activist from the Alliance of Independent Journalist (AJI).

Habibie also dropped charges against Karlina Leksono, Gadis Arivia Effendi and Wilasih Noviana from the Voice of Concerned Mothers. They were taken to court for staging a street rally without police permission.

"An interdepartment team is now conducting a comprehensive study on all the other political detainees and prisoners," Muladi said.

According to his records, there are at least 150 political prisoners and detainees throughout the country.

As a follow-up to his pledge to improve the country's human rights record, the President will ratify next week two United Nations conventions on antitorture and on antirace discrimination.

"I think this is very good for us in facing the future," said the minister.

So far the government has been firmly against the release of Timorese separatist leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, whom the government claims was sentenced on criminal charges, not political ones. (prb)