Wiranto cals meeting on violence

JAKARTA (JP): A closed-door meeting involving top military brass and leading civilians took place late Sunday.

Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto said after the meeting held at Wisma Yani in Central Jakarta, that the riots in Ambon, which have killed at least 50 people, had a similar pattern to other communal clashes.

"The Ambon case is part of a series of other such incidents, like those which occurred in Kupang and Java," he said.

Those attending the 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. meeting included Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono; renowned scholar Nurcholish Madjid; activist Sugeng Saryadi; Yogyakarta monarch and governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X; Abdurraham Wahid, the leader of the Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama; the chairwoman of one faction of the splintered Indonesian Democratic Party, Megawati Soekarnoputri; and businessman Setiawan Djody. The chairman of the National Mandate Party, Amien Rais, coming from out of town arrived last at 10:30 p.m.

Wiranto added that in the country's history there was no record of clashes over religious differences.

The recent incidents, he said, "show that our nation's brotherhood was highly threatened and under a serious test."

In the meeting, "held to strengthen brotherly ties", Wiranto said that participants agreed to help avoid disintegration.

"We agreed that all this unrest should be stopped, and the leaders agreed to help security personnel to that end. We also agreed that (the riots) would be thoroughly investigated."

Wiranto addressed the media along with Bambang, Setiawan and Nurcholish, while the other participants of the gathering left without commenting.

Wiranto also reiterated ABRI's neutrality in the upcoming general election.

Separately, Amien said he requested that Wiranto arrest all the "intellectual actors" behind the riots, which were "well organized, sophisticated, well planned and well financed", as demonstrated by their ability to spread "chaos from Sabang to Merauke", referring to the western and eastern tips of the archipelago.

The riots, he said, were "all an effort to foil the elections and the ongoing investigation into (former president) Soeharto."

Abdurrahman said that the meeting discussed the "increasing clashes involving differences of religion".

"There was a consensus that ABRI should be more open about its statements," he said, declining to elaborate. (byg/das)