Rights talks proceed in face of intimidation

JAKARTA (JP): A discussion on press and human rights held to commemorate International Human Rights Day on Saturday Dec. 10 went as planned even though security authorities tried to cancel the meeting.

The various techniques used in attempts to shut down the meeting ranged from a request to the owner of the building in which it was held to stop the discussion to a number of "obstructions", including an electricity blackout.

"Authorities from the South Jakarta police precinct asked officers of the Indonesian Association of Family Planning, which owns the discussion venue, to cancel the get-together but the request was turned down," Syarif Bastaman, a member of the organizing committee, said.

Bastaman is the chairman of the newly established Indonesian Society for Human Rights Information and Advocacy (Pernia).

Local police officers had abruptly dispersed a discussion on land problems organized by the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation at the same structure, the PKBI building, on Jl. Hang Jebat III, South Jakarta, in September.

No officers dispersed the discussion during Saturday's meeting, although people attending said someone had tried to turn them away when they came, telling them that the event had been cancelled.

"The police did not want to directly cancel the discussion, but requested us to cancel it by ourselves," Bastaman said.

One area police officer insisted that the people responsible for holding the meeting had neglected to get the required permits.

"However, I told him permits are not required for all discussions," Bastaman said, adding that he had been involved in organizing a number of prior events at the building without any trouble.

The event went on as planned even though there seemed to be trouble with the electricity, which people attending suspected was deliberate.

During the discussion, which began at 1 p.m., the microphones went off at 2:15 p.m.. Five minutes later, this was followed by an electricity blackout in the room, which affected the air conditioning.

"However, electricity was on in the next room, where the Directorate General of Medicine and Food Supervision of the Ministry of Health was holding a function," said Stanley, a participant.

"I thank the PKBI management for still letting us talk here although the air conditioner was no longer on," said Goenawan Mohamad, one of the speakers, as he fanned himself.

Speakers expected at the meeting included Surya Paloh, owner of the Media Indonesia daily and Abdurrahman Wahid, re-elected leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama organization. However, only Goenawan, former chief editor of the banned Tempo weekly magazine and law professor Loebby Loqman showed up.

Incapable

Touching on the press bans, Loqman noted that "holders of law degrees here are mostly incapable of making laws".

He cited the conflicts between the Press Law, which rules out banning, and the 1984 Ministerial Regulation, which justifies the cancellation of publication permits.

"Given these conflicting rulings, the journalistic code of ethics must be mainly based on a reporters' conscience," Loqman said.

Gunawan said he was concerned that such discussions mostly involve people who have heard a lot about press freedom. "It's a waste of energy," he said. (anr)