YLBHI questions arrests

YLBHI questions arrests

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) criticized the government yesterday for taking repressive measures against this week's peaceful labor demonstrations.

In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post, the foundation said that demonstrations were a legal means for the people to express concern over an issue.

The legal aid body was commenting on the arrest on Monday of labor activists demonstrating in Jakarta and Semarang. The protesting workers demanded that the government raise the minimum daily wage to Rp 7,000 (US$3).

The protests, spearheaded by labor activists of the Center for Indonesian Workers' Struggle (PPBI) and Students' Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia (SMID), were held in conjunction with World Labor Day, which falls on May 1.

"Demonstrations are a legal means of expressing aspirations, especially when the formal channels don't work and dialog always meets a dead-end," said the statement, which was signed by the foundation's Director of Communication and Special Programs Hendardi and the head of the Workers' Division, Teten Masduki.

According to the YLBHI, the protest in Semarang, Central Java, which involved some 400 workers and students from the SMID, was forcibly broken up by police.

Ten students and two workers were arrested but have since been released.

At a demonstration at the manpower ministry in Jakarta, two activists from the little-known PPBI were arrested.

In both cities, the protesters demanded that the government increase the daily minimum wage to Rp 7,000 from its current range of Rp 2,800 to Rp 4,750. (pwn)