Youths demonstrate support for Bintang

JAKARTA (JP): A group of 20 youths staged a peaceful demonstration outside the Attorney General's Office yesterday, protesting the arrest of rebel politician Sri Bintang Pamungkas.

Calling themselves the Committee of Indonesian Youths, the students did not ask for a meeting with the officials, despite being invited inside, but insisted on reading out a statement opposing the arrest.

They also waved placards, some of which read: "Save the citizens," "Clobber Eddy Tansil," and "Keep your promises."

The students were referring to businessman Eddy Tansil who escaped last year from Cipinang prison where he was serving 20 years for swindling the government-run Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) of US$620 million.

Bintang and two fellow members of the unrecognized Indonesian Democratic Union Party are being accused of subversion for sending Idul Fitri greetings cards which contained the party's three-point agenda: to boycott the 1997 election, to reject President Soeharto's reelection in 1998 and to prepare a new era for a post-Soeharto administration.

The former United Development Party legislator had earlier refused to be questioned by one Attorney General's Office official who was believed to have embezzled interest worth billions of rupiah of Tansil's assets deposited at Bapindo.

His lawyers, Achmad Fauzan and Irianto Subiakto, were refused access to meet Bintang yesterday for "bureaucratic reasons." Ramelan, the head of the office's public relations and legal affairs department, was not on hand to grant the two permission to meet their client.

Bintang has also claimed he lodged his complaints about the procedure of his arrest with the National Commission on Human Rights and the Legal Aid Institute.

Commission chairman Munawir Sjadzali, however, said he had not yet received the letter. Furthermore, "the commission will not interfere with the ongoing legal procedure, unless there's a violation of human rights," he said.

"If asked, however, the commission would consider (intervening)," he said. (05/swe)