Youths occupy legal aid office

Youths occupy legal aid office

BANDUNG (JP): Tens of youths from various youth groups under
the umbrella of the former ruling Golkar Party occupied the West
Java branch office of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI) here on Monday.

Around 25 youths from Siliwangi Youth Generation (AMS),
Kosgoro, AMPI, Pancasila Youth and KNPI (Indonesian Youth
Committee) protested PBHI's defense of 21 suspected rioters.

The suspects, five of whom are members of the Democratic
People's Party (PRD), are being held at West Java Police
headquarters for their alleged involvement in incidents of civil
unrest that followed a labor strike and a rally against fuel
prices hike here two weeks ago.

PBHI told a media conference earlier the same day that it had
urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to set
up a human rights violation investigation committee in connection
with the Bandung incident.

The protesters, clad in the uniforms of their respective
organizations complete with bayonets, forced their way into the
PBHI office and ransacked the room.

They tried to find documents containing PRD activities and
took away some posters and pamphlets with them.

Police arrived at the location 30 minutes after the youths had
left the PBHI office.

AMS chairman Joni Hidayat said that the action was meant to
express their concern of the threat of violence in the city and
his organization believed the recent rioting had been
masterminded by the PRD. (25)