Indonesia: People's Democratic Party (PRD) Condemns Police And Military Brutality At Election Protest
07/08/1999
The following call for action comes from the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia. Dede Oetomo, a candidate for the PRD in the June 7 Parliamentary elections, is the founder of GAYa Nusantara and a recipient of IGLHRC's Felipa Human Rights Award in 1998. GAYa Nusantara is a Surabaya-based gay organization, which coordinates the Indonesian network of lesbian and gay groups. In June of this year it organized the first public gay event in Indonesia.
IGLHRC does not endorse, and is not affiliated with, any political party or their platform or demands. However, IGLHRC is deeply concerned at allegations of state interference with the peaceful exercise of freedoms of assembly and expression, and condemns the use of deadly force against unarmed protesters, wherever it may occur. IGLHRC joins in the call for a full investigation of these allegations.
URGENT APPEAL FOR ACTION
Mugiyanto, European Representative, People's Democratic Party
Address: Remmerdenplein 67, 1106 LS Amsterdam Phone: 0628432572
Email: prdeuro@xs4all.nl
Again, police bullets talk! Today on July 1, 1999 at 4 p.m. the People's Democratic Party (PRD) was holding a demonstration to protest against the cheating and manipulation on the result of the unfair and undemocratic election. Around three hundred people were mobilized in front of the National Election Commission (KPU) office in Central Jakarta. At the gate of the KPU, the masses were blocked by hundreds of anti-riot police and the military so that the masses could not enter the office and meet the KPU officers to talk about the cheating and manipulation of the election.
In the speech in front of the KPU office, the masses demanded the KPU to disqualify the Golkar Party from the election for the cheating and manipulation it does in many regions in Indonesia. They also sharply criticized the military and police who were blocking them as anti-democratic and murderers.
In this peaceful demonstration, the masses insisted on going inside the office, but the police and military refused. Consequently, line of PRD masses pushed the barricades of the military and police. The masses were about to succeed in breaking the military barricade but the situation was getting critical as the police and military started using violence. They used sticks for beating the PRD masses. The masses defended and resisted as they could. They fought the military but the military and police became more brutal. Beside beating and kicking the masses, they suddenly also shot the unarmed masses. The masses dispersed and ran away to different directions.
Four people fell to the ground. One of them identified as Budi was shot in his right chest but is still alive. The others are Syailendra, who was also shot in his right hand. His T-shirt was red with blood. Then there is Kukun whose legs are totally broken. Rustiningsih, a woman aged 26, was also lying on the ground. Her neck was wounded. Blood was squeezing in it. They are all in the Emergency Room of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital now.
Eyewitnesses say that there are more people injured, with some brought to a different hospital but not yet identified. During this time, arrests also happened when the masses dispersed.
With this incident we call for the international community, human rights groups, political parties to support and demand:
- Condemn the brutality of Indonesian military and government which shows no commitment to democratization and total reform.
- The release of all arrested people after the demonstration.
- The police and military to stop violence and shooting against people fighting for democracy, social justice and human rights.
- The government and military to take responsibility for the shooting
Amidst this incident, the PRD will keep demanding for a fair and democratic election and fighting for genuine democracy, social justice and human rights through mass mobilization.
Please send letters of protest to your local Indonesian embassy, with copies to:
- People's Democratic Party
- Partai Rakyat Demokratik PRD
Jl. Basuki Rahmat No. 7B
Jakarta INDONESIA
Phone/Fax: 62-21-8561542, Email: prd@centrin.net.id
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
INDONESIA POLICE FIRE ON PROTEST, THREE SHOT
Reuters - July 1, 1999
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta -- At least three people were wounded on Thursday when Indonesian police fired on protesters demanding that the ruling Golkar party be disqualified from last month's historic parliamentary election, witnesses said. The protest organisers put the number shot at five and said one was in a critical condition. Police began firing as protesters from the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD) tried to break through a cordon outside the main offices of the electoral commission in central Jakarta. It was the first serious political violence in the Indonesian capital since the June 7 poll, which went smoothly without the mass bloodshed that many had feared.
Hospital sources said 23 people were admitted with injuries, two with bullet wounds. A witness at one hospital said he had seen a third victim with a bullet wound. Most had been beaten. But a top PRD official told reporters five had been shot, giving their names. "A total of five PRD members suffered shooting injuries. One is in critical condition," Faisol Riza told reporters.
The local police commander said police fired into the air using a combination of blanks and rubber bullets. But a Reuters reporter saw one policeman shooting into the crowd and one man lying motionless with a gunshot wound to the chest. The chief of central Jakarta police, Lt Col Iman Haryatna, told reporters the incident began when crowds threw stones. "One of the crowd was waving a stick entwined with barbed wire," he said. But PRD officials said police had shot directly into the crowd without warning. "The police started to hit the front line of the demonstrators and, of course, everyone fought back," said Gandi Setiayadi, the PRD's West Java general secretary.
"Then, without warning of any kind, they started shooting at the demonstrators. There were no vertical shots." The protesters had gathered to demand the disqualification of Golkar, once the political vehicle of ousted former president Suharto. They chanted "Revolution! Revolution!" and sang national songs as they waved banners saying 'Disqualify Golkar'. "They represent the old regime, the Suharto regime," one activist said. Police kept a heavy guard outside the General Election Commission offices after the protesters dispersed.
Later the head of a Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence compared the incident with two involving security forces last year, in which students were killed. "The incident indicates that repressive action has strengthened again. There are many unsolved cases in the past, such as the shooting of Trisakti and the November shooting. I hope this will not be one of them," commission head Munir said.
He was referring in part to last year's May 12 killings at Jakarta's Trisakti University. "An apology from the national police is not enough." Several PRD members were abducted while Suharto was in power and some are still missing. Its leader, Budiman Sudjatmiko, was jailed in 1996 for subversion and is still in Jakarta's Cipinang jail. He turned down a pardon offered by President B.J. Habibie, Suharto's successor, because his conviction would remain on record.
Golkar is in second place in the vote count from the June 7 poll. Although the election was more than three weeks ago, less than 60 percent of the total vote has been counted. The PRD contested the election, but looks unlikely to gain any seats. Golkar won all of the stage-managed elections held during Suharto's 32-year presidency. June's vote was the first since Suharto was forced to resign amid mass violence in May last year.
It was Indonesia's first democratic election in 44 years.
