Students still camp at the House<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Students protesting President Abdurrahman \"Gus
\nDur\" Wahid camped inside the House of Representatives compound
\nfor a second straight night on Tuesday as violence marred a rival
\ndemonstration against the Golkar Party.<\/p>\n
More than 2,000 spirited demonstrators, mostly students from
\nthe University of Indonesia (UI) and the Syarief Hidayatullah
\nState Islamic Institute (IAIN), continued occupying the House
\nground after People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien
\nRais told them to remain patient until the assembly made its
\nfinal decision on the fate of the embattled President.<\/p>\n
Similar to their predecessors who helped accelerate the ouster
\nof long-time ruler Soeharto almost three years ago, the students
\npledged to remain at the House until the MPR set a date for a
\nspecial session to impeach the President.<\/p>\n
\"We will only leave the House complex after obtaining
\nconfirmation from the Assembly that it will hold a special
\nsession as soon as possible,\" Taufik Riyadi, who chairs the UI
\nStudent Executive Board, said.<\/p>\n
Unlike the previous day that saw them take to streets, the
\ndemonstrators gave continuous speeches on Tuesday demanding
\nAbdurrahman step down voluntarily and the Assembly call a special
\nsession.<\/p>\n
They asked House Speaker Akbar Tandjung to stand on top of a
\ncar, not to deliver a speech but to listen to the students'
\ndemands.<\/p>\n
\"We want you to listen carefully to the people, who want the
\nPresident to step down,\" one of the students said.<\/p>\n
The students had their supply of provisions logistically
\norganized, with food, water and even fruit regularly arriving at
\nthe House for them.<\/p>\n
An employee in charge of the supplies refused to identify the
\ndonors, saying it was not his business.<\/p>\n
Later in the evening, the students were awakened by the
\narrival of some 2,000 farmers from West Java, who had just
\nmarched across the city demanding that the government recognize
\ntheir land ownership rights, in response to much of their land
\nbeing claimed by state-owned plantations.<\/p>\n
Security personnel in charge of the compound allowed them to
\nenter the grounds through a back entrance.<\/p>\n
Support<\/p>\n
Five kilometers away, over 1,000 Abdurrahman supporters braved
\na heavy downpour as they held a mass prayer in front of the
\npresidential palace.<\/p>\n
The people, mostly from East Java, the President's stronghold,
\nalso called for dissolution of the Golkar Party, which they
\naccused of maneuvering Abdurrahman's ousting, as well as the
\nrevocation of the House's Feb. 1 censure issued in connection
\nwith the President's alleged role in two financial scandals.<\/p>\n
\"We will support Gus Dur until the last drop of our blood
\nbecause Gus Dur was constitutionally elected,\" Mukaffi,
\ncoordinator of the Front of Democracy Defenders (FPD), screamed.<\/p>\n
Another rally against Golkar at its Jakarta provincial chapter
\noffice on Jl. Pegangsaan Barat, Central Jakarta, turned violent.
\nAt least three students were injured and five others arrested
\nafter the protesters clashed with security troops.<\/p>\n
The three are being treated in St. Carolus hospital, Central
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
One of the injured, Wizar Lazuardi Panjaya, 27, said police
\nrammed them with motorbikes and beat them.<\/p>\n
There were some 1,000 students, consisting of at least eight
\nstudent groups uniting under the Golkar Disbandment Alliance
\n(ABG), at the rally.<\/p>\n
\"They wanted to get into our office but police blocked them. A
\ncouple of hours later, molotov cocktails were thrown at the
\npolice,\" vice chairman of Golkar's Jakarta branch, Djonharro,
\ntold The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Police responded to the attack with teargas, then chased the
\ncrowds and beat them.<\/p>\n
Police also found nine boxes containing 336 molotov cocktails
\nand a machete in a parked public minibus not far from the area.<\/p>\n
Kasino, a student of Moestopo University and a member of the
\nStudents Action Front for Reforms and Democracy (Famred),
\nadmitted that the cocktails belonged to the students.<\/p>\n
\"There are actually 400 bombs. We made them ourselves, but it
\nwas only for defense against repressive officers. The machete is
\nnot ours,\" he told the Post.<\/p>\n
The students, he added, planned to sleep over at the nearby
\nUniversity of Indonesia campus in Salemba.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile thousands of members of Banser, Nahdlatul Ulama's
\n(NU) security task force, and supporters of the National
\nAwakening Party (PKB) have left their home towns in Java,
\nincluding Yogyakarta, headed for Jakarta in their effort to
\ncounter the anti-Gus Dur demonstrations.<\/p>\n
However, the organizations' leaders denied on Tuesday giving
\nofficial instructions to their members to go to Jakarta. They
\nalso threatened to demonstrate their full strength if the
\nsituation in Jakarta got worse.<\/p>\n
East Java's Banser chairman M. Rofiq said in Surabaya on
\nTuesday that all 150,000 Banser members in the province were
\nready to move if things became worse.<\/p>\n
\"We are just waiting for instructions from headquarters. We
\nhope that the security officers have been lenient on the anti-Gus
\nDur demonstrators and we want them to treat us the same,\" Rofiq
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Abdurrahman had chaired NU for 15 years and founded the PKB.<\/p>\n
In the West Java capital of Bandung, an official of West Java
\nAnsor and Banser said that a total of 90,000 Banser and 270,000
\nAnsor members could be fielded to Jakarta at any time to defend
\nGus Dur.<\/p>\n
In Semarang, secretary of the PKB Central Java chapter, M.
\nKarding, said that almost 7,000 supporters of Gus Dur, including
\nmembers of Banser and PKB, had left Central Java for Jakarta to
\nsupport to the President.<\/p>\n
The Yogyakarta's chief of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) youth wing
\norganization Ansor, Nuruddin Amin, joined the chorus of support,
\nsaying that a number of Ansor members had left for Jakarta
\nfollowing the situation's recent escalation.<\/p>\n
However, he did not reveal the exact number of Yogyakarta
\nAnsor members who had already left for the capital. (team)<\/p>",
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