Farouk Arnaz – Lawmakers from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, filed complaints with police on Monday after a meeting intended to discuss free health care in Banyuwangi, East Java, was allegedly raided by a group of thugs led by the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front.

"We want justice. We followed the procedures to hold the meeting, including sending a notification letter to the local police as regulated by the existing law," said PDI-P legislator Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariati, the chairwoman of House of Representatives Commission IX for health.

She was speaking to reporters outside National Police headquarters, where she lodged her complaint with fellow PDI-P legislators Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka and Nursuhud.

The trio were attending the meeting in Banyuwangi when a group of 10 to 15 people from the Islamic Ummah Forum, allegedly backed by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), demanded the meeting end and the participants disperse. They claimed the meeting was a reunion of former Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members.

Ribka, who authored a book titled "Aku Bangga Jadi Anak PKI" ("I Am Proud To Be A PKI Child") in 2002, said the meeting had nothing to do with the PKI.

"They came as legislators. The police should have protected them instead of dispersing the meeting as demanded by the FPI," Ribka's lawyer Ribka Prayuna said.

The PKI was effectively wiped out 'following a failed 1965 coup attempt against the Sukarno government. Many hundreds of thousands of people were killed nationwide in a pogrom against the party and it remains banned.

The FPI has denied it was behind the attack. National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said they were investigating.