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recent incident in front of the Golkar headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta, is endangering the reconciliation taking place between the two camps that are vying for the leadership of the party ahead of regional elections.

Both groups have been pointing fingers at whoever ordered a group of 30 armed men, who did not carry any party or group attributes, to go to the party headquarters on Monday afternoon.

No violence occurred during the incident since the police detained the men before they entered the Golkar premises.

Agung Laksono, a leader of one of the two camps, accused party lawmakers who support his rival Aburizal Bakrie of orchestrating the attack of the headquarters, which is occupied by Agung supporters.

'€œWe deeply regret that those at [the House of Representatives] act in such thuggish ways,'€ Agung told the press on the sidelines of a meeting at the headquarters on Tuesday.

Agung claimed that Aburizal'€™s supporters, who occupy the party'€™s office at the House, were trying to take over the headquarters in order to commemorate the birthday of former president Soeharto, on June 8.

Agung did not accuse any specific people of involvement in the incident, but said he was sure the thwarted attack was aimed at disturbing the ongoing attempts at reconciliation.

However, despite the incident he made assurances that his faction was committed to the initiative to reconcile with the rival camp. '€œAlthough we deplore the incident, we want to make sure that we are not easily annoyed because we see a good aim in the reconciliation. We do not have the intention to boycott the planned deal,'€ he said.

The ruling party during the New Order era, Golkar split late last year into two factions led by Agung Laksono and Aburizal Bakrie, both of whom claim leadership of the party.

Months of legal battles have failed to resolve the leadership crisis and the party is now at risk of not being able to nominate candidates in 269 elections scheduled to be held concurrently in December.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, a former Golkar chairman, mediated between the two factions two weeks ago, resulting in the formation of a joint committee to select and manage candidates for the elections.

Following the incident, Agung ordered the reconciliation steering committee to indefinitely put off a joint meeting scheduled with the Aburizal camp, which was originally set for June 12, to await a more favorable situation.

Aburizal supporters claim innocence in Monday'€™s incident and instead blame the rival camp for the attack.

'€œThey paid some thugs to try occupying the headquarters to portray themselves as the victims in order to tell the public that it was us behind the incident. It'€™s a cheap trick,'€ said Bambang Soesayto, a supporter of Aburizal.

The lawmaker from House Commission III overseeing law and human rights said that his camp was still willing to continue the efforts to reconcile, but added that the Agung camp should be blamed if the process hit a snag.

'€œLet'€™s see where the [reconciliation] process is going,'€ he added. (saf)