Thirty jailed for Pekalongan riots
PEKALONGAN, Central Java (JP): The Pekalongan district court sentenced 30 people yesterday to between three days and three months imprisonment for their involvement in riots here last week.
The rioters also received probations of three to four months for disrupting public order.
Presiding judge Jumadi sentenced 18 of them to three days jail and three months probation, less than what the prosecution had demanded for violations of Article 503 of Criminal Code Procedures. The other 12 were sentenced to three months jail and four months probation for disrupting public order and resisting arrest.
About 1,000 people rampaged here last Wednesday, vandalizing shops and property belonging to local Chinese.
The violence reportedly began after supporters of the United Development Party (PPP) were enraged when the local authorities removed their party's banners and replaced them with a stage and banners for Golkar.
Eight people were injured in scuffles with security personnel and were taken to hospital. The eight were among the 30 tried yesterday.
The Pekalongan police precinct said no one else had been charged over the riot.
The chief of the PPP's Central Java chapter, Karmani protested the court's "hasty decision". And charged that some of those sentenced yesterday had not been arrested in the riot, but while saying a dawn prayer.
"The PPP will not take this lying down," he said.
The PPP chapter accused local ulemas of inciting the unrest through their sermons which hurt the party's image. Local lawyer Jawade Hafidz has accused ulema Afiffuddin Musytari Hambali Al- Hafidz of producing tapes of sermons inciting people to riot.
Afiffuddin was questioned by police yesterday, but denied the allegation. He has challenged Jawade to prove that his sermons incited the riot.
Central Java Police Chief Col. Nurdin Umar said Afiffuddin was invited, not summonsed, to explain the political overtones of his lectures.
"We asked him for some background on his activities," Nurdin said.
The riots in the batik-producing coastal town of Pekalongan, about 300 kilometers east of Jakarta, left about 60 buildings damaged.
It is believed that rioters were also upset because popular dangdut singer Rhoma Irama had abandoned the PPP for Golkar.
In Jakarta, Baharuddin Lopa of the National Commission on Human Rights said the commission would send a fact-finding team to Pekalongan.
"We'll try to find out what caused the riots so that we can make recommendations," the secretary-general of the commission said. He added that he believed socioeconomic disparity had contributed to unrest in Pekalongan. (har/01/05)