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Wahid Declares State of "Semi-Emergency" in Indonesia
JAKARTA, July 23 (News Agencies) - Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has declared Monday morning (local time) a state of semi-emergency by issuing a decree to disband parliament and calling for fresh elections within a year.
He also called on the military and the police to halt an impeachment hearing against him scheduled for later Monday.
The announcement was earlier understood by most as a state of civil emergency, as he also announced the "freezing" of the upper and lower houses of parliament.
But Wahid did not use the word "emergency."
A civil emergency empowers the president to dissolve parliament.
The announcement was made at a nationally televised press conference early Monday morning, after a more than three-hour delay.
Wahid said the Indonesian armed forces and the national police "have the
obligation to stave off the special session that is to be held tomorrow morning (Monday) because there should not be any rival governments."
He claimed that a major part of the population and the military and police "welcome the decree."
He also said he had "frozen" the opposition Golkar party, and would set up a body to hold elections within a year.
"As the president of the republic of Indonesia, I announce the following steps," Wahid said. "Freeze the MPR and the DPR (the upper and lower houses of parliament).
"Second, return the sovereignty to the people ... hold elections within a year."
He said that in the "name of the majority of the people of the Republic of Indonesia" he was forced to take extraordinary steps with "conviction and the responsibility to safeguard the nation."
Wahid said he had been "flooded" by demands from non-governmental organizations, several political parties, non-political organizations, religious leaders and others "representing the people" that he issue the decree.
Armed forces spokesman Air Vice Marshall Graito Usodo told the French news agency AFP that the national military commander would hold a press conference later Monday to clarify the situation.
"You can decide for yourself what was said," he said.
But he speaker of the Indonesia's lower house of parliament, Akbar tanjung, Monday said he rejected Wahid's decree ordering "freezing" of parliament and the party he chairs.
Tanjung, who heads the Golkar party, the second largest group in parliament, joined other MPs Saturday in voting unanimously to call an impeachment hearing against Wahid.
Wahid had announced the freeze earlier Monday, hours before he was scheduled to appear before the upper house to face an impeachment hearing.
Meanwhile, Jakarta's police chief ordered his men to disobey the decree.
"Safeguard the special (impeachment) session," Jakarta police chief Inspector General Sofyan Jacoeb said by radio to his troops, the Detikom online news service reported.
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