BY ANY measure it was an unusual court hearing. Army sharp shooters with sniper scopes on their rifles manned rooftops of nearby tall buildings and the pedestrian bridges on the street leading to the courthouse. Several hundred troops and riot police, backed by armoured personnel carriers and fire trucks, deployed at major intersections and down side streets. More police with tear gas at the ready protected the court.
Jakarta tensed for possible political fireworks yesterday as lawyers for the opposition leader, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, began a legal battle to recover chairmanship of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), from which she was ousted during a special military backed congress in June.
In the event, the hearing passed off without incident. Ms Sukarno, urged by her advisers that it was too dangerous to attend, stayed at home. But even her lawyer, Mr R.O. Tambunan, earned a hero's reception from several hundred Megawati supporters. "We will fight on together, we will win," he told the cheering crowd.
Proceedings inside the court were almost as unusual as those outside. The presiding judge, Mr I. Ketut Sukarata, who two days ago heard a much publicised murder trial, was absent due to "toothache". To the jeers of a few hundred Megawati followers crammed into the court, the two subordinate judges present postponed the hearing until August 22nd.
Ms Sukarno's suit, challenging the rival PDI leader installed by the congress, is hardly as dramatic as the riots last weekend in which at least three people died and 34 buildings were destroyed. It is, however, the basis of a political challenge the like of which President Suharto has never experienced in 31 years in power.
In that time Mr Suharto has controlled all areas of political life, including the leadership of the three political parties created by his New Order regime. Ms Sukarno, however, is holding out for what the regime evidently considers dangerously populist notions about who chooses their leaders. She "wants to show that it is not the government which has the final say but the members of the party," says her aide, Mr Lak Samana Sukardi.
Also cited in Ms Sukarno's suit are the armed forces and police chiefs, the general responsible for social and political affairs and the minister of home affairs. She charges the congress which ousted her was illegal as it did not follow party rules and procedures.
Her chances of winning in Indonesia's courts are at best 50-50, said an adviser, Mr Kwik Kian Gie. "Sometimes you get a fair judge, sometimes you don't."
Ms Sukarno faces other difficulties. Security chiefs have suggested she might be called in for questioning over events at the PDI headquarters before her followers were driven out by the police raid at the weekend that provoked the riots.
. A move by the British peace campaigners who damaged a military jet destined for Indonesia to prosecute its manufacturers, British Aerospace, has been postponed.
Four members of the "Stop the Hawk" campaign had intended to begin a private prosecution today on charges of aiding and abetting genocide by the Indonesian government in East Timor.
The women were dramatically cleared by Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday after admitting that they caused more than £1.5 million damage to the Hawk jet at BAe's plant in Lancashire, but claiming as legal excuse that they had used reasonable force to prevent a greater crime against citizens of East Timor.
. The leader of an independent Indonesian trade union arrested on Tuesday is being held under the National Subversion Act, violation of which can lead to the death penalty, his lawyer said yesterday. "The act means that the public prosecutor could detain him for up to one year without a trial," he said.
. A senior regional military commander in East Timor was murdered on Saturday, the military said yesterday.