Jakarta – Some 100 former political prisoners jailed by the authoritarian govenrment of ousted president Suharto on Wednesday urged the new government to restore their good names.

In a petition lodged to the national parliament, the group also called for the return of assets lost when serving their terms and demanded general amnesties to all political prisoners still languishing in jails throughout Indonesia.

The group also urged the scrapping of discriminatory requirements applied for former political prisoners, including the obligation to report to the local military office every month.

The petitioners called for a lifting of a draconian ban on children of former prisoners jailed for involvement in the aborted 1965 coup, which was blamed on communists, from joining the civil service and other professions.

An estimated 500,000 people were killed in a harsh military crackdown on suspected communists and sympathizers that followed the coup, and hundreds of thousands more were jailed.

Among the signatories of the petition was Sri Bintang Pamungkas – a politician jailed for organizing a protest against Suharto in Germany when the former strongman was visiting the country several years ago.

Suharto resigned in May 1998 after bloody riots rocked Jakarta amid a severe economic crisis. The 78- year-old former autocrat is now in poor health.