No party admits responsibility for concert chaos

JAKARTA (JP): The police and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) officials blamed each other yesterday for the rioting that followed chaos at a concert here Monday night.

The police said they provided inadequate force to safeguard the concert watched by an estimated 30,000 people because NU officials had applied for permit for a mass prayer and not a music show.

NU's concert organizing committee charged that the police had not done enough to keep the Kantata Takwa Samsara concert going as planned.

The show featuring pop idol Iwan Fals and poet W.S. Rendra was part of the celebration of the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad organized by NU at the giant East Senayan Parking lot. More than 100,000 Moslems took part in the mass prayer earlier in the day aimed at seeking divine help for the crisis-plagued country.

The show was halted halfway through when thousands of fans charged the stage, vandalized the musical instruments and hurled stones and sticks onto the stage and at the police.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said yesterday that more than 20 fans fainted in the commotion, three police officers were injured and six people were arrested.

"Many people suffered bruises from the flying stones and sticks during the chaos," he told reporters. "We did not see any of the medical help the committee prepared."

Iwan is well known for his songs containing criticism of the sociopolitical realities, such as corruption, abuse of power and oppression of the poor.

Aritonang pointed out that the message in Iwan's songs ignited the audience's emotion. The fans stormed the stage either to get closer to their idols, avoid a crush or to start a disturbance, he said.

Police deployed 800 officers at the show. They were armed with rattan sticks, he added.

The concert organizing committee said in a press conference at Hotel Atlet Century Park yesterday that the police failed to secure the show.

They said they knew that up to 4,000 police officers and another 2,000 troops from the Jakarta Military Command were deployed at and around the venue.

Organizing committee chairman Arief Rachma said the incident was deplorable.

"If only the officers had been able to handle the situation better, this would not have happened. They did not guard the corridor (between two fences in front of the stage) well," Arief said.

The committee apologized to the public for the rioting, albeit stressing that the security forces were to blame for it.

The spokesman of Kantata Takwa Samsara, Setiawan Djody said "irresponsible parties" attended with the aim of causing trouble .

Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin played down the incident, saying that it was minor and did not affect security in the capital as a whole.

"As I have repeatedly told you, security in the capital is totally under control," he told reporters after installing the new commander of an air defense artillery regiment and the new commander of an artillery battalion.

City Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman said the incident should serve as a lesson for anyone wanting to hold a show that careful preparation was vital.

"I just hope that any party who wants to hold a big event should plan it well so that such an incident will not happen," he said. (edt/ivy)