Moslem group stages anticommunist rally

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of Moslems gathered at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque on Wednesday to champion causes ranging from raising public awareness of communist threats to supporting President B.J. Habibie and his reform programs.

The Indonesian Council of Ulemas organized the gathering, which also provided an occasion to launch the Moslem Forum of the Upholders of Justice and the Constitution (FURKON).

"FURKON judges (that)...the national leadership succession on May 21, 1998 from president H.M. Soeharto to Baharuddin Jusuf Habibie was legal and constitutional," said the newly launched organization in a written statement.

The organization also claimed in the statement to be "representative of Indonesian Moslems" and expressed support for Habibie's political agenda.

The President's critics have said his rise to the executive office was unconstitutional since it was not passed through the People's Consultative Assembly, as the 1945 Constitution requires.

FURKON also firmly rejected calls to set up a transitional authority to take over power from Habibie.

Habibie's government has pledged fresh legislative elections for May next year that will allow a new People's Consultative Assembly to pick a president and vice-president before the end of 1999.

FURKON also echoed recent warnings from the military that communists, frequently used as the country's bogeyman during Soeharto's regime, could be stirring up the growing unrest that has accompanied the country's worst economic crisis in more than 30 years.

The rally was held to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 30, 1965 coup attempt by the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

In its statement, FURKON also rejected allegations that mass rapes occurred during rioting that ravaged Jakarta in May.

"That issue very much discredits Indonesian Moslems. There is no factual and authentic evidence yet," it said.

Human rights groups say more than 160 women became victims of rape during the riots, targeted primarily at ethnic Chinese.

The congregation heard a sermon by popular preacher Zaenuddin M.Z. and ended a three-hour rally with noon prayers.

Hundreds of them, however, continued the rally at the Senayan parking lot in Central Jakarta as a number of their representatives presented their statement to the nearby House of Representatives.

Many were seen signing a long white banner in what they said was a show of support for the rally. The group dispersed to say afternoon prayers after the representatives did not return to the parking lot.

Separately, in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, 1,000 people rallied outside the local legislature in a display of support for the government's campaign to eradicate communism.

"Recent demonstrations that have degenerated into looting and riots were infiltrated by PKI members," said Amran Y.S., a member of an anticommunist student movement established after the 1965 coup attempt.

In 1966, Soeharto, using power obtained from founding president Sukarno, launched a ferocious anticommunist witch-hunt, in which at least 500,000 people are estimated to have been killed.

In Jakarta on Wednesday, human rights activists grouped in the Asian Network for Democracy in Indonesia called on the Armed Forces (ABRI) to stop its allegations that pro-democracy movements had been tainted by communism.

"The accusation is only a setback of the early struggle for democracy here," the group said in statement.

The group also demanded the end of the military's dual function, which gives it a socio-political role as well as a defense mission.

The network comprises of a number of human rights organizations in Indonesia, Australia, Thailand, Japan and the Philippines and had just completed a three-day conference on supporting democracy in Indonesia.

In the East Timor capital of Dili, a local community leader warned on Wednesday of the "latent danger of a revival of communism" in the province.

Local legislator Armindo Mariono Soares said a communist-style movement was started in East Timor in the 1970's by three young East Timorese who had studied in Portugal.

When communists took over power in Lisbon, he said, the three returned to East Timor and set up a leftist party. But the party's activities became more prominent when civil war broke out in the province in 1975, he said as quoted by Antara.

"Their behavior in East Timor resembled that of the PKI," Soares said. (25/21/nur/byg)