Police name five more in Bali clashes

The Jakarta Post, Denpasar/Jakarta

The Buleleng Police named on Tuesday five more suspects in the clashes between supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Golkar Party over the weekend.

Eleven people have been named suspects in the violence, all of them from Petandakan village, a PDI Perjuangan stronghold where the worst of the three clashes took place on Sunday and claimed the lives of local Golkar supporters, Putu Negara and his younger brother Ketut Agustana.

Buleleng Police's detectives chief First Insp. Johanes P. Siboro said 34 people had been questioned in connection with the violence that rocked the resort island of Bali.

On Monday night, a fresh wave of violence hit Buleleng when a group of people aboard four jeeps attacked the village of Banyuning at 10:30 p.m., pelting stones and throwing Molotov cocktails at houses.

Fortunately, the Molotov cocktails did not cause a fire and the villagers responded quickly by barricading every road to the village.

Dozens of police personnel gave chase to the attackers. Half an hour after midnight, the police found the jeeps at the home of a member of Golkar Youth Development Force (AMPG), the party's youth wing. In the house the police also found four Molotov cocktails, knives, bamboo sticks and bricks. The police have arrested one person in connection with the reprisal attack.

Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika attributed the violence to a vendetta and the existence of paramilitary task forces affiliated to political parties.

The task force members were busy making a show of force instead of performing their duty of providing security to the parties' supporters, Pastika said.

"Displaying physical strength, tattooed torsos, they drive their cars with blaring sirens, speeding through red lights without any concern for the safety of the other motorists," Pastika said.

Another major trigger of the clashes, Pastika noted, was the establishment of political parties' command posts, which have multiplied at an amazing speed. Command posts have been used as a place to get drunk, which creates another security problem," he said.

Meanwhile, the Bali Tourism Community, an umbrella of at least 19 tourism-related organizations, rallied outside the compound of provincial legislature to denounce the clashes that had damaged the island's future and tainted the image of Balinese as a peace- loving people.

In Jakarta, PDI Perjuangan's central executive board said the clashes erupted as the party supporters were provoked.

"The police should not ignore the fact that the attack was a reaction to many incidents that have hurt our party," PDI Perjuangan secretary-general Soetjipto said on Tuesday.

Speaking in a press conference after the party's weekly meeting led by chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri, Soetjipto said there was no need for the party to apologize to Golkar for the death of its two members.

"We will not punish those who were involved in the clash and do not see any reason to apologize for what happened," he said.

During the meeting, Megawati instructed all party supporters to restrain themselves from clashing with other political parties.

"The members should exercise self-restraint and we will impose sanctions against those who are involved in violent acts after the issuance of the instruction," Soetjipto stressed.

He said the party would not interfere in the legal process against its members.