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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