Two NGO gatherings busted

JAKARTA (JP): Police broke up gatherings organized by the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) and the Pijar foundation yesterday.

Dozens of police officers stormed the union's headquarters on Jl. Kayu Ramin and the foundation's office on Jl. Penggalang, both in East Jakarta, asking participants at the meetings to leave.

"It's clear that you're not allowed to attend an illegal meeting," Sgt. Johni Dimagah shouted at the workers in front of their headquarters.

SBSI chairman Muchtar Pakpahan did not attend the aborted ceremony, "We heard that the authorities want to harass him in front of his supporters. So we told Muchtar not to come," said Tohap Simanungkalit, a labor activist.

In a bid to avoid commotion, labor leaders urged the around two hundreds guests to take their refreshments and go home.

An hour earlier a dozen officers raided the office of Pijar, located about one kilometer southwest of the union's headquarters and asked George Junus Aditjondro to stop delivering his speech.

Aditjondro is a noted scholar at the Salatiga-based Satya Wacana Christian University in Central Java. He has recently claimed in research that the number of people killed in the 1991 Dili incident was 271 and not 50 as stated by the government.

According to the head of Matraman police sub-precinct, whose territory includes both offices, the organizers lacked permission to conduct such big gatherings.

"Both of them had no permission to organize a meeting with more than five participants," Maj. Rusmana Supiyana told newsmen at his office.

Pijar held the meeting yesterday to celebrate the release of an East Timorese student activist, Virgilio da Silva Guterres, who was arrested a week after the bloody incident in Dili and jailed for two and a half years in Cipinang prison for insulting the government.

Guterres was cynical about the dismissal. "This is the grandeur of the nation," he said sneeringly while watching the local activists argue with the officers.

Earlier he thanked participants of the meeting for their coming and their continual visits while he was jailed in Cipinang.

"Two or three years ago, I considered all Indonesians my enemies. However, the prison taught me to respect nice people like you," Guterres said. (09)