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Indonesian police and ultra-right threaten workers’ rights conference
Papernas Media Release - January 20, 2007
Australian activists who were invited to a left unity conference near Yogyakarta January 18-21 have remained holed up elsewhere because of threats of violence from an ultra-right gang supported by local police.
Some 350 Indonesian participants were also to attend the founding congress of the National Liberation Party of Unity (PAPERNAS). They are currently being threatened by the group that calls itself the Front Anti Komunis Indonesia (Anti-Communist Front, Indonesia).
According to Peter Boyle, one of the Australian participants and the national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, “The local police refused to protect the rights of assembly for the conference participants, and instead tried to deny that the conference had the right to proceed.
He continued: “Lawyers from the Legal Aid Institute said they had no right to do this as the congress organisers had fulfilled all legal requirements and informed the police of the conference two weeks before.”
Mr Boyle said that the police then tried to argue that the problem was with the conference platform – including the repudiation of the foreign debt and the nationalization of the mining industry.
According to one of the conference organizers, Katarina Pujiastuti: “Since when has working out solutions to this country’s problems become a crime?”
The Indonesian conference organizers have been negotiating with the police for days, and the whole conference is now threatened with being closed down.
As of January 20, about 100 thugs, some armed with knives, are still threatening to attack the conference participants.
“Events like these demonstrate that Indonesian people have yet to gain the democratic right to discuss – promises made by several governments since the fall of General Suharto ’’, Mr Boyle said.
Peter Boyle: 0401 760 577
Katarina Pujiastuti: 00
11 6281 584 368
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