Thirty jailed for Pekalongan riots
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)