ID :
59810
Sat, 05/09/2009 - 21:28
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Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/59810
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YOGYAKARTA POLICE DISBAND `ELECTION ABSTAINERS CONGRESS`
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, May 9 (ANTARA) - Sri Bintang Pamungkas, a diehard government critic, is determined to hold a "National Golput (election abstainers) Congress" although one he managed to organize here on Friday was disbanded by the police.
A group of police officers led by Yogyakarta city police chief Senior Commissioner Agus Sukamso came to a hotel here Friday evening and broke up the Golput meeting Pamungkas had organized.
The police asked the meeting's participants to go home after Pamungkas was unable to produce a police permit to hold the meeting. Pamunkas was then taken to the Yogyakarta police headquarters for questioning but released on the same night.
"We did not arrest Pamungkas. What we did was only asking him about the permit to hold the meeting." Sukamso said.
"But because he refused to be questioned, we thought there was nothing more we needed from him, so we allowed him to go home," the police chief said.
Meanwhile, Pamungkas said the police had no lawful reason to arrest him because he had duly informed the National Police Headquarters about the meeting beforehand.
"I duly notified the National Police Headquarters. Whether or not they formally acknowledged my notification is not my concern. The fact is, I did give them prior notice," he said.
He said although the Election Abstainers Congress on Friday was disbanded by the police, he would organize it again at another venue.
"The congress will be convened again but at another place. Even if we have to meet in a humble eatery, we will do it," he said.
Pamungkas was prosecuted during the Soeharto administrations for his public criticims of the government. In the post-Soeharto era , he set up a political party and took part in legislative elections but did not win enough votes to get elected. ***
A group of police officers led by Yogyakarta city police chief Senior Commissioner Agus Sukamso came to a hotel here Friday evening and broke up the Golput meeting Pamungkas had organized.
The police asked the meeting's participants to go home after Pamungkas was unable to produce a police permit to hold the meeting. Pamunkas was then taken to the Yogyakarta police headquarters for questioning but released on the same night.
"We did not arrest Pamungkas. What we did was only asking him about the permit to hold the meeting." Sukamso said.
"But because he refused to be questioned, we thought there was nothing more we needed from him, so we allowed him to go home," the police chief said.
Meanwhile, Pamungkas said the police had no lawful reason to arrest him because he had duly informed the National Police Headquarters about the meeting beforehand.
"I duly notified the National Police Headquarters. Whether or not they formally acknowledged my notification is not my concern. The fact is, I did give them prior notice," he said.
He said although the Election Abstainers Congress on Friday was disbanded by the police, he would organize it again at another venue.
"The congress will be convened again but at another place. Even if we have to meet in a humble eatery, we will do it," he said.
Pamungkas was prosecuted during the Soeharto administrations for his public criticims of the government. In the post-Soeharto era , he set up a political party and took part in legislative elections but did not win enough votes to get elected. ***
