Soccer hooligans ready and waiting

Soccer hooligans ready and waiting

SURABAYA: The annual soccer league championship final is
still several months away, but thousands of soccer hooligans here
are ready to flock to Jakarta in support of Megawati
Soekarnoputri.

Ruslan Abdul Gani, who chairs the Forum for Democracy
Enforcement People (FRPD), an institution which organizes soccer
hooligans, said on Monday that 5,000 and 10,000 people would
begin to trickle into Jakarta on Oct. 17 to express their support
for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan)
chairwoman.

"We won't use force or violence to reach our political
objectives," Ruslan said.

He denied that the deployment of hooligans, locally known as
bonek, was aimed at putting pressure on the People's Consultative
Assembly to elect Megawati the next president.

In Cilacap, Central Java, a group of 100 Megawati loyalists
plan to travel to Jakarta on Oct. 16.

"We are ready to talk all the risks, including the possibility
of clashing with rival supporters," a local PDI Perjuangan
officials, Supangat, said. (45/nur)