EMERGENCY REPORT
A BLOODY PLAN to
CRACKDOWN on STUDENTS' DEMONSTRATION
Jakarta, 21 May 1998, 10:08 PM —
Mr. Suharto announced his resignation today and appointed Prof. Dr. B.J. Habibie to
replace him as the President of Republic of Indonesia. People from wide ranging
backgrounds have denounced Suharto's move as inconstitutional. Legally, the resignation
decision and new president appointment have to come from the MPR (People's Consultative
Assembly). The students are not pleased either. Tens of thousands of students are still
camping at the office of MPR at Senayan. They now demand that B.J. Habibie should step
down as well. He is not the person expected to be the new president by the students, since
Habibie is also known as the Suharto's "crony".
Gen. Prabowo, Commander of the Army Strategic
Reserve Command (KOSTRAD), is in a tactical alliance with B.J. Habibie, as well as with
Amien Rais. Prabowo has planned to radically change the demand of the student protesters
(the big pressure group for a democratic reform now). He wants the students to support the
decision of B.J. Habibie as the new President. In the middle of the night yesterday, Gen.
Prabowo met with Gen. Sjafrie Samsuddin -- Army Regional Commander for Jakarta (they are
close friends). Several leaders from moslem organizations were also present. Prabowo
planned to crackdown on the student demonstrators in Senayan (MPR's office) tomorrow
(Friday, May 22). The time is still unknown (some predict it would be early in the
morning).
The plan is to bring about 200,000
"students" (we don't really know if these are real students) into the MPR's
office area, where the demonstrators are staying. Prabowo's "students" will
create some chaotic situation, inviting the army to take a stern action at the students.
Prabowo's plan is to do a bloody crackdown, shooting and killing the student
demonstrators, in attempt to instantly kill the reform movement. The details may be
different in actual implementation tomorrow, but the objective is clear -- kill the
student movement for democratic reform, quickly and at all cost.
This past couple of days, some students have
reported that they saw "ninjas" around the MPR's office at Senayan.
"Ninja" is the term popularly used to designate the Army Special Forces
(KOPASSUS) in disguise. Ninjas usually do the killing and destruction covertly. This is
not the formal procedure within the Army, however this is made popular when Gen. Prabowo
served as the Commander of the Army Special Forces. It is also reported that Gen. Prabowo
was the mastermind of the big riots in Jakarta last week (May 13, 14). Therefore, this new
plan is nothing new to Gen. Prabowo.
It is our hope that the international
community -- like the US government who has repeatedly reminded the Indonesian government
and military to take maximum restraint on dealing the protesters -- will continue to put
pressure on our government to allow demonstrators to voice their aspirations peacefully.
Our hope is at its peak now, as we received Prabowo's bloody crackdown plan.
