Papernas to lodge complaint over New Order style

Jawa Pos - April 17, 2007

Kendal -- In the aftermath of the forced adjournment of a regional conference of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas), Papernas' Kendal regional leadership board (DPD) intends to report the

incident to the Central Java regional police. They believe that the actions by police in creating difficulties over a permit and the adjournment of the event is evidence that the police are not acting independently and that there was interference by the TNI (Indonesian military) similar to that which used to occurred under New Orderdictatorship of former President Suharto.

During a press conference yesterday, Kendal DPD

Chairperson Azharudin said that police should not

have made a problem over obtaining a permit for the

event. How was it that there were problems when

there were to be only 22 participants or less than

50 people at the event. "We will lodge a report with

the Central Java regional police because in

accordance with Law Number 9/1998 an event with less

than 50 participants should not be obliged to obtain

a permit", he said.

Moreover he said, three days before the event on

Wednesday April 11, Papernas sent a letter of

notification to the Kendal district police. However

the officer who received it failed to provide a

receipt of notification (STTP) and said that they

had to consult with the Kendal district police over

the matter.

"The police's lack of seriousness in the various

procedure to obtaining a permit and security for

Papernas is tangible evidence of TNI intervention in

police affairs who are interfering in political and

civil rights", added Azharudin.

Azharudin said that police had admitted that there

was certain agency behind the forced adjournment up

of the regional conference late last week, that is

the District Military Command (Kodim) that wanted to

obstruct the event by the party that has put forward

the name of labour activist Dita Indah Sari as a

candidate for the 2009 presidential elections.

Officials from Kodim O715 Kendal as well as the

Kendal district police have denied this however. The

commander of Kodim O715 Kendal, Cavalry Lieutenant

Colonel Widhioseno said that the forced adjournment

of the Papernas conference was entirely under the

authority of the police.

FPI threats

Three days before the conference, Papernas also

received an SMS from someone claiming to represent

the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). The message from

cell phone number 081384555XXX said that the FPI had

held a meeting and would an attack the Papernas'

Kendal regional conference if it went ahead.

"The SMS was sent to the hotel management whose

hotel was also threatened with attack if the

regional conference still went ahead", said

Azharudin. According to Azharudin, since then it was

not members of the FPI that approached them but

security personnel, either officials of the National

Unity and Social Protection Agency, the district

police or Kodim.

Since Papernas was established, the party's events

have indeed come under frequent attack by groups who

accuse Papernas of being a new form of communism

Several events have been attacked including a

regional conference in East Java, the party's

founding congress in Kaliurang, Yogyakarta and a

declaration in Jakarta on March 29. (sof/Jon)

[Translated by James Balowski.

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