PRD chief, executives arrested

PRD chief, executives arrested

JAKARTA (JP): The authorities have captured the leader of
Democratic People's Party (PRD), Budiman Sudjatmiko, and nine
other activists blamed for inciting the July 27 riots.

As the authorities continue their crackdown on suspected
instigators of the riots, well-known leftist writer Pramudya
Ananta Toer and a relative of ousted Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI) leader Megawati Soekarnoputri were summoned to the Attorney
General's Office for questioning.

Chief spokesman for the Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Amir
Syarifudin said that the 10 PRD activists were rounded up on
Sunday and early yesterday.

Budiman, along with PRD secretary-general Petrus H. Haryanto,
executives Kurniawan, Suroso and Benny Sumardi were caught at
9:15 p.m. on Sunday while watching television in Benny's house in
Bekasi, Amir told reporters.

Amir said the team that arrested the activists had earlier on
Sunday caught Ken Budha Kusmandaru, an alleged PRD agitator at a
bookstore in Jakarta.

And Garda Sembiring, leader of the Jakarta and West Java
chapter of the Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy
movement, a PRD element, and three PRD members, Ignatius Pranowo,
Victor da Costa and Ignatius Putut Arintoko, were caught in
Depok, West Java, he added.

Amir said that the 10 activists could be charged with
subversion, the most serious offense under Indonesian law; it
carries a maximum penalty of death.

"Their action is an embryonic coup d'etat," he said, adding
that they hoped to turn Indonesia into a communist state.

The authorities are registering a criminal case against the
PRD after the July 27 riots and accused the PRD and its leaders
of sowing hatred against the government and the President.

The riots erupted after rebel PDI members, supported by
security officials, stormed the party headquarters, evicting
Megawati's supporters.

Amir said the team of security officials found some documents
in Benny's house, which he said strengthen the authorities'
suspicion that the PRD is "synonymous" with the outlawed
Indonesian Communist Party.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Jakarta Institute for Social
Affairs, I Sandyawan Sumardi, demanded yesterday that the
authorities release Benny Sumardi, whom he said did not have any
links with the PRD.

Government investigators yesterday questioned Pramoedya as a
witness for Budiman and labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan, who also
faces subversion charges in connection with the riots.

Pramoedya, who won the Ramon Magsaysay award for journalism
and literature in 1995, was summoned to the Attorney General's
Office in the morning and left the office in the afternoon after
about seven hours of questioning. He denied having a close
relationship with either the PRD or Budiman Sudjatmiko.

Pramoedya, 70, who has been accused by the government of being
a communist, was jailed without trial for 14 years after the 1965
coup attempt and is still not permitted to travel abroad.

The Attorney General's Office yesterday also questioned
Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, Megawati's younger sister, for similar
reasons.

Muchtar Pakpahan still refuses to sign documents on his
testimonies, saying that he had been detained since Aug. 3
without reason.

Lutfi Hakim, Muchtar's lawyer, said Muchtar had filed a
lawsuit against the attorney general for the arrest.

Separately, 12 non-governmental organizations, including the
International NGOs Forum on Indonesian Development and the
Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, called on the
government to comply with the principle of presumption of
innocence in questioning the suspects.

Police questioned two senior PDI legislators yesterday, Sophan
Sophiaan and Sukowaluyo Mintorahardjo, as part of their
investigations into the riots as witnesses in Budiman's case.

Meanwhile, 36 U.S. congressmen filed a petition to Minister of
Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas on Tuesday last week, asking the
Indonesian government to ban the Pemuda Pancasila youth
organization, one of Golkar's youth wings, which they said was
responsible for the attack on PDI headquarters on July 27.

The congressmen also called on the Indonesian government to
make public the names and whereabouts of all those arrested in
connection with the riots and allow detainees immediate access to
family members, legal counsel and medical treatment.

They also called on the Indonesian government to allow
journalists to report without censorship or other restrictions,
and to offer full cooperation to the National Commission on Human
Rights in its inquiry into those events.(imn/16)

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