Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Tens of thousands of Indonesian suicide warriors have flooded Jakarta ready to defend embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid, the commander of the squads said on Tuesday.
Nuril Arifin also claimed a similar number of other Wahid supporters had also come to the capital ahead of a showdown between Wahid and an angry parliament on April 30.
"At the moment, there are already some 30,000 of our followers in Jakarta, they are spread out in the capital and they are ready to stage mass protests to defend our leader," Arifin, clad in long white robes and green turban, told Reuters.
Arifin said the Wahid faithful would take to the streets on April 30, when parliament is due to debate its response to the president's rejection of an earlier censure over two graft scandals.
A second formal rebuke is widely considered all but inevitable, clearing the way for the peak People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to consider impeaching the ailing Muslim cleric.
Fears of violence
Wahid on Tuesday attacked his critics as arrogant, saying parliament had no right to impeach him.
"The parliament has been so arrogant. A presidential government cannot be impeached because of its work," he told hundreds of supporters in the hill town of Malang in his East Java heartland. "A president can only be impeached if he betrays [the nation]."
The suicide squads have stoked fears more violence could rack the already bloodied country, but Arifin pledged his troops would not resort to violence during the protest.
"Our force will not use violence, we plan to gather outside the parliament to show support ... we don't care who we might be pitted against but we will not attack," he said.
"But we are ready to die when they attack us ... Our reason is clear and simple, we don't want to see our leader being treated unfairly." Wahid himself opposes the suicide squads and has told his supporters to stay away from Jakarta.
Thousands of fighters have been training at camps in the rice paddies and sugar cane fields of East Java, Wahid's heartland, learning martial arts and magic powers. Many believe they are protected by magic spells or talismans and Arifin says they can kill with their bare hands.
Arifin declined to say where his men were staying in Jakarta. No one knows how many camps are sprinkled across the fields of East Java countryside, but an estimated 50,000 volunteers have walked away from their normal lives to train.
Most are followers of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the largest Muslim organisation in the world's largest Muslim nation, which also has its power base in East Java.
People give up fields
Wahid used to be the chief of the NU before he became Indonesia's first democratically-elected president 18 months ago. Arifin insisted Wahid has the full backing of most Muslim clerics and warned of a bigger wave of pro-Wahid forces if the parliament did not stop efforts to oust him.
"This must sound absurd but in the countryside in Java, people would sell their paddy fields to join the squads ... or to come to Jakarta," Arifin said.
The fanaticism of Wahid's supporters and their promise to bring their fervour to the capital is what Wahid's political foes fear most. However, Defence Minister Mahfud M.D., travelling in Malang with Wahid, said the authorities could not stop his supporters travelling to the capital.
"But if they try to force their demands, they will be dealt with. Actions will be taken," he said adding the government could also not restrict training of the suicide squads.
"We can never stop people from practicing martial arts." Near the hilltown of Bogor, just outside Jakarta, the army has been running live ammunition exercises in preparation for any possible violence leading up to and during parliament's debate.