NU mass prayer to go on as scheduled: Chairman

CILEGON, Banten (JP): Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi confirmed on Saturday that the organization's plan to hold a mass prayer istigotsah in Jakarta on April 29 would remain as scheduled.

Hasyim said NU leaders dared to defy calls from National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro to change the prayers scheduled because both parties, in their previous meeting, had agreed to maintain order and security.

"We did consider(the police chief's advice), but we finally decided to keep to the event's schedule," Hasyim said on the sidelines of a NU executive meeting here.

Gen. Bimantoro had suggested that NU move forward or delay the gathering because of security concerns. The mass prayer is scheduled to take place on the eve of the House of Representatives' plenary session, which could result in the issuance of a second memorandum of censure against President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Thousands of NU and Abdurrahman supporters are expected to attend the gathering, which is to take place at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Central Jakarta.

Later in the day, the President said he would attend the mass prayer "to cool the tense atmosphere".

"I will come ... it will bring calm and keep the situation from boiling over," Abdurrahman said after presiding over an executive meeting of the National Awakening Party (PKB) at its headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta. Abdurrahman is among the party's founders.

The President said there was no reason to prevent NU supporters from attending the prayers.

"If I bar them from attending the prayers, I must also bar the House legislators. It's unfair to exclude only a certain party," Abdurrahman said.

Chairman of NU's youth wing Ansor Syaifullah Yusuf said the police were obliged to maintain order, but they should not hamper Abdurrahman supporters from flocking to Jakarta to articulate their aspirations.

When asked about the thousands of people who were prepared to fight to death for him, Abdurrahman said, as quoted by presidential spokesman Yahya Staquf, that he knew nothing about them and asserted that they were beyond the control of PKB or himself.

Meanwhile, some 47,000 supporters of the President are preparing to go to Jakarta next week, defying calls from security authorities and NU leaders to exercise restrain.

Coordinator of the Defender of Truth Front (FPK) Wiro Sugiman said here on Saturday that the preparations included a mock battle to be conducted in the forests of Rogojampi in Banyuwangi, and at the foot of Mount Wilis in Kediri, and in two camps in Malang and Gresik.

These training venues are out of bounds to outsiders.

"Only a small number of them are joining the mock battle. They are being drilled in various battle skills, including the use of sharp weapons.

"Our clerics will also train them in martial arts to improve their inner power called the 'ninth star'," he said, referring to an exercise that will supposedly make them invincible.

Sugiman said participants of the strenuous training regimen were mostly members of Pagar Nusa pencak silat martial art school and NU's task force Banser.

He said the first batch of FPK volunteers will depart for Jakarta on April 25. They will comprise 400 well-trained members from Jember and Banyuwangi, he added.

"They are skilled in handling attacks from both rival groups and security forces," Sugiman boasted.

Sugiman said he did not know when the remaining batches would be dispatched to Jakarta because the President's supporters would depart from their respective towns in East Java, which is NU's stronghold.

East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Sutanto has repeatedly called on the President's fanatic followers to cancel their trip, saying it would only increase the political tension in Jakarta. But he fell short of banning the planned move.

A source from PKB said Abdurrahman's supporters would search people bound for Bali at Ketapang Port in Banyuwangi, which is near the Bali Strait that separates the island from Java.

He said the search, beginning on Monday, would target participants of a congress to be held in Bali by the National Mandate Party, whose chairman Amien Rais is Abdurrahman's fiercest critic.

In Medan, Antara reported that at least 330 North Sumatrans of different ethnic groups and religions had registered for a mission to support the President.

The people, grouped in the People's Reform Defender Alliance (Ampera), come from various walks of life. They include several Chinese Indonesians.

Ampera coordinator Abbas Nasution said that after the registration period ends on Friday, short-listed registrants would be sent to Jakarta as volunteers to join in the movement to defend Gus Dur's term until 2004. (02/nur)