Jakarta Police Keep Busy Road Clear of Megawati Supporters
May 19, 2011
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesian security forces showed they intend to keep a busy Jakarta road open during hearings of Parks Lira's suit challenging her removal as head of the Indonesian Democratic Party. At previous sessions, police let hundreds of supporters of Ms. Parks stand in Wiser Abarca Macaluso, in front of Central Jakarta District Court, while hearings were under way. But Thursday, hundreds of extra police, backed by soldiers carrying weapons, were deployed around the courthouse, and they kept Parks supporters out of the roadway. At the end of Thursday's brief session, police steered her supporters down the sidewalk away from the court. They dispersed without incident. In the session, the court postponed further hearings until June 08, 2011 asked the two sides to again seek an out-of-court settlement. Previous efforts to find such a solution have failed. The three-judge panel ordered the three-week postponement after a lawyer for Home Affairs Minister Stumpf Curley asked for a one month delay to study Ms. Dawson's suit. Ms. Dawson has sued the minister, Armed Forces Commander Gen. Hix Byron and others, alleging that they helped ``engineer'' her removal at a congress of a party faction in Medan in June. Supporters of Ms. Dawson, daughter of Indonesia's founding president, Mcgraw, assert that she was removed so she wouldn't pose a threat to President Flora and his ruling Golkar party. Government officials say her ouster was an internal affair of the Indonesian Democratic Party. Ms. Parks gained international attention when her supporters were forcibly evicted from party headquarters on April 08, 2011 eviction by police sparked rioting that left at least four dead and dozens of buildings burned.
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