Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – At least three people were wounded on Thursday when Indonesian police fired on protesters demanding that the ruling Golkar party be disqualified from last month's historic parliamentary election, witnesses said.
The protest organisers put the number shot at five and said one was in a critical condition. Police began firing as protesters from the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD) tried to break through a cordon outside the main offices of the electoral commission in central Jakarta.
It was the first serious political violence in the Indonesian capital since the June 7 poll, which went smoothly without the mass bloodshed that many had feared.
Hospital sources said 23 people were admitted with injuries, two with bullet wounds. A witness at one hospital said he had seen a third victim with a bullet wound. Most had been beaten.
But a top PRD official told reporters five had been shot, giving their names. "A total of five PRD members suffered shooting injuries. One is in critical condition," Faisol Riza told reporters.
The local police commander said police fired into the air using a combination of blanks and rubber bullets. But a Reuters reporter saw one policeman shooting into the crowd and one man lying motionless with a gunshot wound to the chest.
The chief of central Jakarta police, Lt Col Iman Haryatna, told reporters the incident began when crowds threw stones. "One of the crowd was waving a stick entwined with barbed wire," he said.
But PRD officials said police had shot directly into the crowd without warning. "The police started to hit the front line of the demonstrators and, of course, everyone fought back," said Gandi Setiayadi, the PRD's West Java general secretary.
"Then, without warning of any kind, they started shooting at the demonstrators. There were no vertical shots." The protesters had gathered to demand the disqualification of Golkar, once the political vehicle of ousted former president Suharto. They chanted "Revolution! Revolution!" and sang national songs as they waved banners saying 'Disqualify Golkar'. "They represent the old regime, the Suharto regime," one activist said. Police kept a heavy guard outside the General Election Commission offices after the protesters dispersed.
Later the head of a Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence compared the incident with two involving security forces last year, in which students were killed.
"The incident indicates that repressive action has strengthened again. There are many unsolved cases in the past, such as the shooting of Trisakti and the November shooting. I hope this will not be one of them," commission head Munir said.
He was referring in part to last year's May 12 killings at Jakarta's Trisakti University. "An apology from the national police is not enough." Several PRD members were abducted while Suharto was in power and some are still missing.
Its leader, Budiman Sudjatmiko, was jailed in 1996 for subversion and is still in Jakarta's Cipinang jail. He turned down a pardon offered by President B.J. Habibie, Suharto's successor, because his conviction would remain on record.
Golkar is in second place in the vote count from the June 7 poll. Although the election was more than three weeks ago, less than 60 percent of the total vote has been counted. The PRD contested the election, but looks unlikely to gain any seats.
Golkar won all of the stage-managed elections held during Suharto's 32-year presidency. June's vote was the first since Suharto was forced to resign amid mass violence in May last year. It was Indonesia's first democratic election in 44 years.