PKI victims protest court

PKI victims protest court

JAKARTA: Dozens of people who said they were victims of the
now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) demonstrated in
front of the Constitutional Court on Monday to protest its ruling
allowing former communist members to contest in future
legislative elections.

The court declared earlier that Article 60(g) of the election
law banning former PKI members from contesting seats in the House
of Representatives, provincial legislatures and
regental/municipal legislatures, and the Regional Representatives
Council contradicted the 1945 Constitution and was invalid.

Protest leader Arukat Djaswadi said the court's ruling was
insensitive to PKI victims and their families.

"They (the communists) were very brutal, we can not trust
them," Arukat said.

Court member Lt. Gen. (ret) Achmad Rustandi told the
protesters his office had only annulled an article banning former
communists from contesting legislative seats, while other laws
banning the party, communism, Marxism and Leninism were still in
effect.

The protesters, who came from East Java, later went to the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to air their
feelings there. -- JP