Officer killed in MPR showdown<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Tens of thousands of students defied a heavy
\ndownpour and a massive security cordon to march toward the
\nPeople's Consultative Assembly (MPR) building on Thursday to
\npress their demand for speedy political reform.<\/p>\n
One police officer died in various clashes that also left at
\nleast three students with gunshot wounds and more than 120 others
\ninjured.<\/p>\n
Few of the students made it to the MPR building.<\/p>\n
Most of the columns of protesters were stopped well before
\nthey reached their destination by riot police and soldiers.<\/p>\n
Clashes were inevitable.<\/p>\n
They occurred at the toll road above the Slipi intersection in
\nWest Jakarta and at the Semanggi cloverleaf in Central Jakarta,
\nwhen the heavily armed troops -- equipped with guns, water canon
\nvehicles, horses and batons -- attempted to disperse the crowd.<\/p>\n
At Slipi, the clash was recorded at about 6:30 p.m. shortly
\nafter the students refused to reply to security officers'
\nrequests to disperse peacefully.<\/p>\n
With two water canon vehicles and two trucks fronted with
\nbarbed-wire grilles in the front line to drive the students away,
\nthe troops fired gas canisters at the demonstrators and then beat
\nthem.<\/p>\n
Only two shots were heard during the clash. Several buses,
\nminibuses and cars believed to have been used by the protesters
\nto reach the site were left behind by the students who scattered
\nin panic.<\/p>\n
According to the head of the Jakarta Police On-the-Alert unit,
\nCol. Arthur Damanik, the dead officer from the police's elite
\nMobile Brigade was beaten by the protesters during the Slipi
\nincident.<\/p>\n
He, however, refused to give details, saying that the body had
\nbeen sent to the police-owned Kramatdjati hospital in East
\nJakarta for a postmortem examination.<\/p>\n
The Semanggi incident followed several minutes later.<\/p>\n
It began when the students tried to push through the Army
\nlines in a car. The soldiers stopped the vehicle and smashed all
\nthe windows. This prompted the students to throw stones at the
\nsecurity forces and attack them with the wooden flagpoles they
\nwere carrying.<\/p>\n
The security forces then opened fire.<\/p>\n
About two hours later the students hastily retreated after a
\ngroup of hundreds of pro-session security volunteers arrived at
\nthe scene.<\/p>\n
Hospital sources said the students who suffered gunshot wounds
\nwere Dedi Aidil of the Bogor Agriculture Institute, and Zulhaidir
\nand Budi Chairullah, both from Gunadarma University in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Medical staff said they were shot in the chest, hands and
\nlegs. The type of the bullets remains unknown.<\/p>\n
Some 50 wounded students were treated at the Pelni hospital in
\nTanah Abang, 16 at UKI hospital in Cawang, 15 at Cipto
\nMangunkusumo, five at Sumber Waras hospital in Grogol, 14 at
\nPatria Ika hospital in Slipi and 29 at the Sonjaya Clinic in
\nPalmerah.<\/p>\n
Some of the wounded students were still in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Most of the students suffered light wounds on their heads and
\nlegs. A few of the injured students were taken home by their
\nrelatives.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Police spokesman, Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang, when
\ncontacted last night, refused to comment on the clashes. \"We're
\nstill waiting for the final results,\" he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
The tens of thousands of demonstrators, who approached the MPR
\ncomplex from various directions after long marches round the
\ncity, included a huge number of members of the public. The latter
\njoined the sea of people who occupied almost all major streets
\nheading to the venue of the Special Session at the Assembly
\nbuilding on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta.<\/p>\n
It is thought Thursday's clashes were triggered by a clash the
\nprevious day between soldiers and students and journalists in Jl.
\nIman Bonjol, Central Jakarta. Nine soldiers, three journalists
\nand two students were injured in the incident.<\/p>\n
As of late last night, thousands of protesters were still at
\nAtmajaya University near the Semanggi cloverleaf and the LIPI
\nbuilding on Jl. Gatot Subroto.<\/p>\n
It is still unclear whether the students were planning to
\nbreak through the blockade of troops from all four branches of
\nthe Armed Forces.<\/p>\n
As was the case in previous days, the demonstrators' demands
\nwere: reject the special session, revoke the Armed Forces (ABRI)
\ndual function and prosecute former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
The students came from dozens of universities in Jakarta and
\nWest Java, such as Bogor and Bandung.<\/p>\n
They were grouped in the City Forum (Forkot), Communication
\nForum of Greater Jakarta Student Senates (FKSMJ), Indonesian
\nMoslem Students Association (HMI), Workers Committee for Reforms
\nAction (Kobar), Committee of Students and People for Democracy
\n(Komrad), Students Action Front for Reform and Democracy
\n(Famred), Collective Forum (Forbes), Indonesian Nationalists
\nStudent Movement (GMNI), Pro-Megawati Youth Committee, Big Family
\nof the University of Indonesia (KBUI), and the Students Family of
\nBandung's Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n
Police in Jakarta's environs, such as Bogor, were assigned to
\nexamine suspicious buses which might have been carrying students
\nto join their colleagues in the capital.<\/p>\n
\"We only stopped vehicles that we really believed to be
\ncarrying potential protesters,\" Bogor Police chief Col. Hary
\nSetiabudhi said.<\/p>\n
The clashes provoked some pro-government Islamic groups into
\nthreatening to unleash their own supporters to confront the
\nstudents, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
The Ulama Communication Forum condemned the students and
\naccused them of trying to overthrow the government \"by
\nrevolutionary means\", the news agency said.<\/p>\n
Forum chairman Abdul Rasyid Abdullah Syafi'ie called on all
\nclerics, religious teachers and public figures to prepare their
\nsupporters at any time they were needed to secure the MPR
\nmeeting.<\/p>\n
Amien Rais, a reformist leader and chairman of the National
\nMandate Party (PAN), however, attacked the use of religious
\nattributes by those who opposed the students.<\/p>\n
\"We should condemn them. But we should condemn even harder
\nthose who are behind the mobilization of people in the name of
\nreligion,\" said Amien, a long-time leader of the Muhammadiyah
\nIslamic organization.<\/p>\n
Amien appealed to protesting students to control their
\nemotions, saying that certain parties might be using the protests
\nas part of a bigger scenario to seize power.<\/p>\n
He said the parties bent on grabbing power were stirring up
\nthe conflicts to create chaos. \"I have my suspicions, but I
\nwon't name who they are.\" (team)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/officer-killed-in-mpr-showdown-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}