No to Sutiyoso's reelection

JAKARTA: About 20 people staged a rally at the City Council building on Thursday, urging councillors to suspend Governor Sutiyoso, whose term will end in October, and not reelect him.

The protesters, grouped in the Youth Movement of July 27, 1996, said that Sutiyoso did not deserve the seat because he was involved in the attack on the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters, Antara reported.

Sutiyoso was the Jakarta military commander when the government-backed incident took place on July 27, 1996.

They also said that the councillors should take a critical stance toward Sutiyoso's 2001 budget statement, which will be presented next week.

During the demonstration, they also gave the council a copy of their request to the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office to thoroughly investigate the 1996 case.

Several civilians had been prosecuted for the incident, but none of the military officials were sent to court.--JP