Police increase presence at Golkar offices

JAKARTA (JP): Police have increased the number of personnel guarding offices of the Golkar Party following an attack by hundreds of students on the party's branch office on Jl. Cikini, Central Jakarta on Friday.

City Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman said on Saturday a company unit of police officers, numbering about 100, had been deployed to the party's headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta as a precautionary measure.

He said another two company units of reinforcement officers had been posted at the Cikini office, which has in the past few days become the target of student protests.

"The additional personnel were brought in to anticipate further student rallies against the party," Mulyono told reporters.

Before Friday's attack, dozens of police had been placed at the two main Golkar offices following destruction and arson attacks on Golkar offices in East Java.

Mulyono condemned Friday's anti-Golkar rally, calling it an act of violence endangering police officers by throwing molotov cocktails.

He said nine students were being questioned in connection with the incident. They were accused of attacking a police officer.

"We allow students to stage rallies but they should be conducted according to the law and not simply as an occasion to commit violence," he remarked.

More than 500 students called themselves the Golkar Dissolution Alliance (ABG) staged a rally in front of the party's branch office on Friday evening.

The rally turned violent when students started to throw molotov cocktails and, in return, police officers shot tear gas at the crowd.

Seven students were arrested while at least 10 students were injured after being beaten by police officers who dispersed them.

The students came from several organizations, including the University of Indonesia Student Action Forum (FAM UI), the City Forum (Forkot), the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) and the Collective Forum (Forbes), all of whom demanded the dissolution of Golkar.

Silent rally

Separately on Saturday, some 25 demonstrators who claimed to represent the Anti-Golkar Community (Fromag) staged a gagged- mouth rally at the fountain circle in front of Hotel Indonesia demanding the dispersal of the Golkar party on Saturday.

During the 40 minute-long rally, the protesters taped their mouths shut with black tape.

The rally symbolized the protesters' call on the political elite to halt their polemics through the media, the dissolution of Golkar and the need for a trial staged for the dispersed party in order to try former cadres.

The protesters also urged the government to avoid making political compromises with major parties, reminding the public of the party's efforts to lure them.

A big banner displaying a slashed banyan tree, Golkar's symbol, was paraded during the rally. A wolf's head and a word in Indonesian language which means greedy were added to the picture.

Another banner read: "Golkar is a shelter of corruption, collusion and nepotism which has caused poverty to people".

In response to the continuing anti-Golkar campaign, the Joint Secretariat for Total Reform demanded on Sunday that the former ruling party pay US$145 billion in compensation to the state over what it called "political, economic and human rights crimes" Golkar committed during the New Order.

The organization's coordinator, Chandra Rahmansyah, told a press meeting at the University of Indonesia campus in Salemba, Central Jakarta, Golkar was subject to the repayment because as a political machine of the past regime, the party was given privileges in political, economic, social and cultural fields.

"During its heyday, the New Order and Golkar claimed lots of lives, destroyed the country's natural resources and generated an unabated economic crisis resulting from abundant foreign debts," Chandra said.

The organization asked Golkar to fulfill the demand by March 11 at 1 p.m., otherwise it will hold a people's tribunal to dissolve the party.

Chandra dismissed allegations that the campaign against Golkar was prompted to divert the public's attention away from the House of Representatives censure of President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid over its role in two financial scandals.

"The demand for Golkar's dissolution is part of the reform agenda we started in 1998. It is nothing to do with the controversy over Gus Dur's leadership," Chandra said. (01/jun)