Police take six students in anti-Golkar protest<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): At least six university students, including a
\nfemale, were arrested by police shortly after they began to
\ndisburse from an anti-Golkar Party rally near the Jakarta
\nConvention Center (JCC) in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Two male students were severely beaten by the police, leaving
\nthem bleeding from noses, mouths and ears.<\/p>\n
None of the policemen, including those at the scene, were
\nwilling to explain the reason for the sudden attack on the
\nstudents; nor would they reveal where the seven were being taken.<\/p>\n
The arrested students were part of some 200 protesters from
\ntwo student organizations, Forkot (City Forum) and Jarkot (City
\nNetwork), protesting at the JCC gate on Jl. Gatot Subroto, a main
\nthoroughfare.<\/p>\n
The prestigious convention center was the venue for Golkar's
\nthree-day leadership convention, which finished on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Golkar was the ruling political party during former President
\nSoeharto's 32 years of presidency and the opening was attended by
\nlong-time party notables and Vice President Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri in her capacity as chairperson of Indonesian
\nDemocratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).<\/p>\n
After waiting for the students to congregate at the main gate,
\nthe leaders began the rally at 2 p.m. with typical rhetoric. Some
\nstragglers marching to the rally point removed Golkar yellow
\nflags -- bearing the party's banyan-tree symbol -- from poles
\nplaced along the freeway fence in front of JCC.<\/p>\n
The students piled the flags in the middle of Jl. Gatot
\nSubroto access road and set them on fire, causing a traffic jam
\nduring the city's evening rush hours.<\/p>\n
No police officers were seen at that time.<\/p>\n
\"Reform means nothing without Golkar's dismissal,\" a protester
\nshouted from the top of a rented mikrolet public minivan, adding
\nthat Golkar was responsible for the widespread practice of
\ncorruption in the country.<\/p>\n
Other students on top of a rented Metromini public minibus
\njoined the clamor.<\/p>\n
Some street children, about 10 years old, joined the students,
\nhelping to bring down the Golkar flags.<\/p>\n
Some JCC employees wearing white uniforms, like kitchen staff,
\napparently learning of the absence of security officers, gathered
\nnear the gate with sticks in their hands as if ready to defend
\ntheir work place.<\/p>\n
Several minutes later, for no clear reason, the workers went
\nback inside the building even though the police were still not on
\nsite.<\/p>\n
At 3:15 p.m. some students tried to open the gate while others
\nbegan pulling at the fence separating JCC from the toll road.<\/p>\n
\"We did that in case the police arrived and we had to run
\nacross the toll road,\" one of the student told The Jakarta Post
\nat the scene.<\/p>\n
Fifteen minutes later the students succeeded in opening the
\ngate. However, they made no move toward the building where
\nGolkar's leaders were still meeting.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later an unidentified person burned a pile of
\nGolkar flags, placed at the gate earlier, and the protesting
\nstudents immediately withdrew from the scene and began to
\ndisperse.<\/p>\n
The students claimed they did not know who the man was. But it
\nseemed that the students had been tipped off that police officers
\nwere about to arrive.<\/p>\n
About five minutes later, a troop of some 150 policemen from
\nthe nearby Jakarta Police headquarters arrived at the scene and
\ncalmly put out the fire.<\/p>\n
The students had already left the scene with some of them
\nalready on the other side of the road at Jl. Bendungan Jatiluhur
\nwhen the police ran after them by tearing down the freeway's
\nfence.<\/p>\n
The captured female student, Indah, who claimed to be a second
\nyear student of National University (Unas) in South Jakarta,
\nlooked upset when photographers began taking pictures of her
\nwhile being guarded by police personnel.<\/p>\n
\"I'm not a prisoner! I'm not a celebrity!\" she said covering
\nher face with a small towel. (08)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-take-six-students-in-anti-golkar-protest-1447893297",
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