Ray Burke
Ceist:65 Mr. R. Burke asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the Government's and the EU's response to the enforced closure of the political offices of Megawati Sukarnoputri in Jakarta, Indonesia. [19089/96]
Written Answers. - Closure of Political Offices in Indonesia.
The Deputy will be aware that there have been two incidents in recent months involving the closure of the political offices of Mrs. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the desposed leader of the Opposition Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). In the first of these incidents, following Mrs. Megawati's dismissal from the leadership of the PDI in June 1996 at a Government-backed congress called by a rival party faction, riots erupted in Jakarta on 27 July 1996 after the police raided the PDI headquarters to evict Mrs. Megawati's supporters.
Shortly afterwards, the EU carried out a démarche to the Indonesian authorities which expressed concern at the events of 27 July 1996 and sought a satisfactory explanation of the whereabouts and condition of those arrested during the raid on the PDI headquarters. The EU also sought information as to how long those arrested were to be detained and on what grounds, and details of the judicial procedure which would apply. The EU called upon the Indonesian authorities to exercise maximum restraint in protecting and restoring public order and urged them to uphold fundamental democratic rights such as freedom of speech and assembly and to ensure that universally accepted human rights were not violated.
More recently, Mrs. Megawati has been forced to leave her temporary PDI headquarters as the Jakarta municipal authorities have taken action against her on the basis that she was allegedly using a residential building for unauthorised business purposes.
Mrs. Megawati has issued a series of separate legal proceedings regarding her ousting from the leadership of the PDI and the actions which have been taken against her by the authorities. On 11 October 1996, the Central Jakarta State Court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to hear a suit filed against the Indonesian Government by Mrs. Megawati: this judgement is the subject of a possible appeal while the other legal actions have yet to be heard in the courts. The European Union is continuing to monitor all of these developments.