3,000 demonstrate at Maumere council

MAUMERE, East Nusa Tenggara: About 3,000 people held a demonstration in front of the council building here yesterday to demand that the price of electricity and basic commodities be reduced.

The demonstrators, calling themselves the Community Alliance for Peaceful and Respectful Reform, arrived in the morning in 30 trucks.

Claiming to represent the 250,000 people from Sikka regency, six representatives of the demonstrators met councillors and presented them with a written petition of their demands.

Two of the representatives, G. Meda, 58, and A.M. Theod, 55, said they wanted to highlight the suffering people were facing and express their support for peaceful reform. (yac)