Police name five more in Bali clashes
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.