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)