Camelia Pasandaran& Zaky Pawas – More than 100 members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front have been hospitalized with food poisoning after eating rice packages distributed during a rally outside the Corruption Eradication Commission in Jakarta on Thursday.

"According to our records, there are 120 members who have been hospitalized in separate locations," Habib Salim, chairman of the Jakarta branch of the group known as the FPI, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

The ill FPI members were taken to Pelni Hospital, Bakti Mulya Slipi Hospital and six other hospitals across the capital and in Bogor, he said. The sick include five children and 13 women, he added.

They were taking part in a demonstration in support of the fight against corruption by the antigraft agency, known as the KPK. The action was organized by the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Force (LAKI). Other groups that took part in the rally included the Islamic Reform Movement (Garis), the Islamic Defenders Force (LPI) and the Islamic People's Forum (FUI).

Habib said the demonstration had reached the stage where a delegation had been invited inside to meet with the KPK leadership. The main body of demonstrators were waiting outside the KPK building.

"Now, that was when our people out in front were given food," Habib said. He said the demonstrators felt fine, and went home after the rally was over at about 2 p.m.

"Then at about 3:30pm, some of them started complaining of dizziness, nausea and vomiting," he said. "Some of the members who accompanied the others to the hospital said the doctors had diagnosed them as suffering from food poisoning, but we're still waiting for the final results of the police investigation."

He said several of the 120 members who were hospitalized had improved and gone home, "but some of them are still under hospital care." The FPI is paying the medical costs of the affected members, he added.

Habib said the FPI had sent out a team to establish who produced the food packages. He said the FPI had identified a person, but he did not wish to give a name.

"Obviously, it was not an FPI member, because the FPI did not order any food or drinks," he said. "This is a nation based on the rule of law, so the name has been handed over to the police."

He said he suspected the incident was a deliberate action to damage the FPI, which he said was planning to inaugurate new commanders on Saturday. "We don't know whether it was poison or just old food," he said.

"The FPI has lots of enemies. It could well be that it was a mission from someone who wants to destroy us, because the FPI wants to eradicate corruption."

The head of the Central Jakarta Police, Comr. Angesta Romano Yoyol, said a conspiracy was unlikely. "The food packages were distributed by LAKI. They came from a warteg [food stall] near the LAKI office," he said.