Police to question five Indonesians over protest
Police to question five Indonesians over protest
JAKARTA (JP): Police say they will summon for questioning five Indonesians they suspect were involved in an anti-Indonesian government demonstration during President Soeharto's visit to Germany last week.
Spokesman for the national police, Brig. Gen. I.K. Ratta, identified three of the five suspects yesterday as former Tempo editor Goenawan Mohamad, legislator Sri Bintang Pamungkas and democracy activist Yeni Rosa Damayanti. He refused to name the other two, saying only that they were East Timorese.
Sri Bintang is a legislator of the United Development Party who is about to be dismissed from the House of Representatives by his own party. Yeni is an activist with the outspoken Pijar Foundation. She recently completed a 12-month jail term for defaming President Soeharto.
Goenawan, whose leading newsweekly was banned last year, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
"We are following up reports that they were involved in the demonstration," Ratta said.
He said that, because there were no Indonesian police at the demonstration, they would use video footage which has been obtained for use as evidence.
Ratta is the first official to confirm rumors of imminent police action against Yeni, Goenawan and Sri Bintang.
According to the authorities, the five Indonesians were spotted among the 100 demonstrators who greeted President Soeharto's arrival in Hannover. The demonstrators accused the Indonesian government of violating human rights.
Also yesterday, deputy national police chief for operational affairs, Maj. Gen. M.B. Hutagalung, said that the government would take legal action against any Indonesian nationals found to have been involved in the demonstration.
Hutagalung said that national police detectives had been assigned "to collect all available evidence" in connection with the suspected involvement of several people in the demonstration.
"In principle, we have to take legal measures against anybody involved (in the demonstration)," he said.
Hutagalung said that press reports and suggestions made by some government officials constituted "the basis" for the police investigation.
"It's just like reporters pursuing stories, they need to know whether an event is worth reporting," he said. "Police, too, need to find out whether an action can be considered a violation of the law."
He said that the police would summon for questioning those allegedly involved in the demonstration as soon as the evidence had been collected.
"The law must be upheld without discrimination," he said.
Goenawan was quoted by AFP yesterday as saying that he was aware of rumors that police planned to take him in for questioning.
He said, however: "I'm not yet a caged animal."
Interview
Goenawan gave interviews to the German media while on holiday in Germany but left Germany on March 19 -- almost two weeks before President Soeharto's arrival -- and was back in Jakarta when the protests occurred on April 5 and April 6.
On Tuesday, Army Chief of Staff General Hartono said that if the media reports were true "about the actions of some Indonesians who besmirch their own nation, it is over the top."
"The head of state represents the entire Indonesian nation and being treated like that, who would not be angry," he said, adding "we will see later what action will be taken by the authorities."
A member of the Indonesian Armed Forces faction in the House of Representatives, Aminullah Ibrahim, has urged the government to consider legal action against people who took part in the protests.
"If it is proved that Indonesians were behind such demonstrations, they need to face the legal process," Media Indonesia quoted him as saying.
The paper also quoted a senior member of the ruling Golkar party, Oka Mahendra, as saying that the government needed to be sure the demonstrations did not have any "connections with clandestine movements within the country." (bsr/swe)