Eighteen members of the People's Democratic Alliance, ALDERA, were arrested at crack of dawn Thursday by a force of 15 policemen, several of whom were in civvies. The police forced their way into the organisation's Bogor, West Java office and rounded up everyone there, without saying a word. The were taken away on three police vans to police headquarters in the city. This comes in the wake of the arrest last Saturday of four ALDERA activists who were taken into custody for distributing copies of the latest speech by PDI chairperson, Megawati Sukarnoputri. The four were beaten as they were being arrested. They have since been released but required to report regularly to the police.
One of the four, Robert, told the National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday this week that they were brutally beaten on the way to the police station and handcuffed. Robert was among the eighteen activists arrested this morning.
Meanwhile a young man was arrested in Sukabumi, West Java for having in his possession three hundred copies of a book containing speeches by Megawati.
The whereabouts of ALDERA secretary-General [Pius - JB] is still not known. He disappeared last Thursday and has not been seen since. The director of the Nusantara Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta, Desmond J Mahesa, has also been missing since last Friday.
SIAGA, Solidarity for Amien Rais and Megawati, has reported the disappearance of these two men to the police and to the National HR Commission. SIAGA coooordinator Ratna Sarumpaet, the playwright and actress, said they feared these missing men might be suffering the same fate as the young student Hendrick who disappeared two years ago and was held incommunicado for fifteeen days by the military, during which time he was physically maltreated.
The 146 people who were rounded up in Jakarta yesterday while taking part in a protest demonstration are still being held. According to their team of lawyers they should have been charged or released within 24 hours.
It is understood that the police plan to have them charged for taking part in a demonstration without police permission. The intention was to hold a summary trial on minor offences but the court was not available to conduct the trial. When the police said the trial would take place at the police station, lawyers protested because trials must be held in court.
The 146 people arrested were taking part in a demonstration calling for Suharto's wealth to be investigated. After going to the Attorney-General's office, they made their way to the Department of Manpower to call for measures to be taken to stop massive layoffs that are taking place across the country. It was while they were on their way to the department that police forced them to disperse, hit a number of participants, put them onto police vehicles and took them to police headquarters.