New security team for illegal rally

New security team for illegal rally

JAKARTA (JP): The city security authorities have set up a
special 1,000-member task force to maintain the implementation of
Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of expression, a police officer said.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said on
Tuesday that the Satgas Justisia team whose personnel included
the military police, police and soldiers are allowed to use the
standard police formal procedure to disperse demonstrators.

"The members of this task force may arrest and detain
demonstrators if the latter refuse to heed the legal procedure,"
Aritonang told The Jakarta Post.

The officer did not reveal the precise date of the team's
establishment but said that the task force, which is under the
supervision of the Jakarta police chief, already carried out
their mission last Wednesday near the residence of President B.J.
Habibie on Jl. Patra Kuningan, South Jakarta.

At least 33 students were netted by the task force. They were
charged with staging a rally without prior notification and with
disrupting traffic.

According to Aritonang, members of the team would be deployed
at a scene where illegal street protesters refused to obey the
security order to disperse themselves.

Some police helicopters have also been prepared to help the
task force in conveying the security warnings to the
demonstrators, Aritonang said.

"We have covered all possibilities in which protesters deny
that the task force members ever tell them to disperse," he
continued. (ivy)