Moslem group stages anticommunist rally

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)