2 Sides Trade Charges in Indonesia’s Unrest

Opposition and government camps maneuvered Monday to blame each other for weekend violence that left at least three dead and many more reported missing.

Opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, in her first policy statement since the government clamped down Saturday on a burgeoning pro-democracy movement, urged “all Indonesians . . . to maintain stability and order based on law and the constitution, in order to preserve national unity. . . . I appeal to Indonesia’s leaders to learn the lesson and understand that the main cause of the incident is violation of the law.”

While at least superficially a call for calm--and it could have the effect of easing tension on the streets--her statement carried an edge, for it was the government, she says, that violated the law.

She blames the violence on the government for illegally engineering her removal last month as leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party, then using force Saturday to take over her party headquarters while she was still fighting a court battle against her ouster.

Authorities, in what appeared to be a political tactic more than an arrest threat, said Monday that Megawati--daughter of the late President Sukarno, who led Indonesia to independence--may face questioning.

“Perhaps she will be called in for questioning,” Susilo Sudarman, minister for political and security affairs, said after meeting with President Suharto. The focus of the questioning would be why her headquarters has been used for meetings at which “curses and obscenities were hurled at the government,” he said.

In recent weeks, “free speech forums” that spilled out into the street in front of Megawati’s party headquarters were held almost daily, with hundreds staying overnight to keep the building under their control.

Police and civilian toughs backing a rival faction of the party took over the property Saturday in a bloody two-hour clash. That action triggered street confrontations between Megawati supporters and police, which turned into rioting when police and soldiers moved to disperse the crowd. At least 10 buildings were gutted by fire, and others were damaged.

Jakarta Police Chief R. Abubakar said Monday that three people died, 54 suffered significant injuries and 249 were arrested in the weekend violence.

Both the independent Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation and the government-appointed but widely respected National Commission on Human Rights launched investigations Monday into the degree of violence. One of the biggest questions was how many Megawati supporters where killed--if any--on Saturday.

Legal Aid official Munir said that on Monday families reported to the foundation 78 missing people whose names appeared neither on a police list of 206 prisoners nor on the foundation’s own list of 158 hospitalized. Later, the police expanded their list to 249 arrested; that still leaves at least 35 people unaccounted for.

Munir said that the foundation doesn’t have “reliable information about the number of people who died” but that there are indications that the death toll may be greater than the official figure.

The foundation also issued a news release stating that at one hospital “the morgue is being guarded by police, and they will not allow anyone to approach.” At another hospital, it said, a 63-year-old man was being treated for a concussion, while at a third hospital a man had undergone a brain operation.

Officials of Megawati’s faction have told the foundation that they believe 28 supporters were killed, but their information is second-hand, Munir said. The foundation has not spoken with anyone who claims personally to have seen bodies in the headquarters building, he said.

In another step toward putting Megawati on the defensive and justifying police and army actions, authorities charged Monday that Communists or similar forces had a role in the weekend riots. Sudarman, the political and security minister, identified this alleged group as the People’s Democratic Party and said it was “synonymous” with the illegal Communist Party of Indonesia.

Although there appeared to be only limited reverberations from the events in the capital in the rest of this country of 204 million, Jakarta remained on edge Monday. Bomb scares prompted the evacuation of hundreds of downtown workers. Searches turned up nothing. In midafternoon, a convoy of 10 trucks filled with shouting soldiers raced through the city. Troops with assault rifles guarded key points.

The Jakarta stock exchange plunged more than 5% in morning trade, then recovered slightly to close down 3.7% at 540.74.