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