Police quiz ex-activist over alleged vandalism

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor

Bogor Police questioned on Wednesday former student activist Pius Lustrilanang over the vandalism of a movie theater and Ramayana shopping center last July.

Detectives chief Adj. Comr. Yayan Sopyan said that Pius, one of several student activists abducted by the military back in 1998 and now the commander of a paramilitary group, was believed to have been behind the incident.

About 200 members of Pius' paramilitary group arrived at the police station in a convoy of three trucks and several private cars to show support for their leader.

Clad in red and black uniforms, the members of the group, which is affiliated with President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), waited in front of the station.

The police questioned Pius until late in the afternoon.

The head of the Bogor branch of the paramilitary group, R. Suryana, told reporters that the group was asked by PT Sinar Kharisma Padjadjaran to clear the area on Jl. Juanda where the theater and shopping center stand.

According to the police, PT Ramayana Agung Permai, who filed a complaint with the police, has ownership documents for the building, which was bought from individual owner Angkawijaya Henricus in 1976.