Clashes mar Habibie's accountability speech

Clashes mar Habibie's accountability speech

JAKARTA (JP): Militant student protesters demanding that
President B.J. Habibie drop his bid for a second term clashed
with riot troops outside the People's Consultative Assembly
complex at dusk on Thursday.

At least three protesters were beaten violently by the police.
Five others were detained during the 30-minute street battle,
which erupted about three hours before Habibie delivered his
accountability speech for his 16 months in office since taking
over from president Soeharto, who stepped down in May 1998.

Two reporters, Fahrizi of Derap Reformasi magazine and Agus
Widjananto of Pro2 FM radio, suffered serious head injuries
caused by stray rocks.

Photographer Daniel Supriyono from Warta Kota daily had his
left arm and left ear seriously injured and bruised legs after
being hit by an official Tourist Police jeep at the scene.

Groups of students and activists started to take over the
street under the Senayan flyover, which is within walking
distance from the Assembly complex, in the afternoon. Their
number reached the thousands by about 5:30 p.m.

At least 2,000 students converged on the Assembly area,
arriving on foot and in buses, but were blocked under the
flyover, which was tightly guarded by a cordon of hundreds of
riot troops.

The students said they had just one aim: to enter the Assembly
compound. However, none of them could say what they would do once
they achieved their objective.

Clashes erupted later when some protesters started to throw
rocks and sticks at the troops.

When the security personnel fired blank bullets and gas
canisters in return. The protesters counterattacked with Molotov
cocktails.

The fight stopped only when the sound of Adzan (dusk call to
pray) was heard from a nearby mosque. The students then held a
mass prayer at the site.

During the clash, security forces also used water cannons on
the demonstrators, who triggered the melee by pelting the riot
squads with rocks.

At least five protesters were dragged away by military police
officers.

Some students were seen carrying sharpened bamboo stakes and
red-and-white Indonesian flags, and a number of them chanted "God
is Great".

About two kilometers from the scene, protesters, some 500 of
whom had earlier picketed Habibie's residence in Kuningan, held
aloft dozens of banners denouncing Habibie and Soeharto, as well
as one which read "Stop militarism, bring Soeharto and his
cronies to court".

The students also directed their ire at military chief Gen.
Wiranto, who was picked by Habibie a day earlier to be his
running mate in the presidential election.

"Reject Habibie and Wiranto", read one poster carried by
students. Another poster said "Crush remnants of (Soeharto's) New
Order".

Both Habibie and Wiranto were senior members in the Soeharto
administration.

The students also demanded the military leave the country's
political scene altogether and sought the reopening of a
corruption probe into Soeharto.

The government on Monday halted the investigation into the
former president, saying there was insufficient evidence.

A few kilometers away from the clash, some 1,000 supporters of
opposition leader Megawati Soekarnoputri rallied at the Hotel
Indonesia traffic circle to demonstrate their support for the
chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan).

They then attempted to march to the Assembly but were halted
by student protesters.

Earlier in the afternoon, Sahid University students caught and
beat up a man wearing a gold wristwatch and a gold ring on their
campus on Jl. Prof. Dr. Soepomo in South Jakarta. They suspected
the man was an intelligence officer monitoring their activities.

The man was later identified as First Lt. Sukijo, a senior
intelligence officer from the South Jakarta Police.

"The students took Sukijo inside the university and onto the
third floor of the university, where the university security
guards questioned him," Akhmad, one of the students, said.

Before heading to the Assembly, some student groups stopped to
express anger over the East Timor crisis at the Australian
Embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said in Kuningan, South Jakarta.

Some of the students pelted stones and hurled about 20 Molotov
cocktails at the premises. Some of the Molotov cocktails smashed
on trees and burst into flame.

Postpone

The occupation of the 12-lane street and tollway in front of
the Assembly by the students forced President Habibie to postpone
his speech, which was initially scheduled for 7 p.m.

After a careful arrangement, the President left his Kuningan
residence at 8:40 p.m. and passed by car along Jl. Kapt. Tendean,
Jl. Pattimura and Jl. Wolter Mongunsidi, Jl. Pattimura, Jl. Asia
Afrika, Jl. Gelora and smoothly entered the Assembly from the
rear gate at 9:55 p.m.

Clashes between protesters and troops went on late into the
night on Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Casablanca, to where protesters had
been pushed back by security personnel.

Students continued to throw Molotov cocktails at the troops,
who fired more gas canisters at them.

Similar protests against Habibie took place in several cities
across the country, such as in Bandung, Ujungpandang, Semarang
and Bogor.

In Bandung, supporters of PDI Perjuangan and students voiced
their rejection of Habibie and asserted that some 2.5 million of
their supporters would swarm to Jakarta several days before the
Oct. 20 presidential election.

People are expected to arrive from Cirebon, Indramayu,
Tasikmalaya, Majalengka, Karawang, Bandung and greater Jakarta
areas such as Bekasi and Bogor.

In Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, about 1,000 students marched
toward the council building, protesting the practice of deploying
forces around the House of Representatives building in Jakarta.

"We do not want any bloodshed. We do not want conflict. We
demand that PDI Perjuangan and Golkar supporters do not throng
the building. It's a cheap political way to create pressure,"
Iswari Al Farisy, student coordinator, said.

In Semarang, about 100 students from Walisongo Islamic
Institute converged in front of the council and urged MPR members
to reject Habibie's accountability speech.

In Bogor, West Java, a group of PDI Perjuangan supporters and
students occupied the state-owned RRI radio station and managed
to air their demands for 10 minutes from 1 p.m., calling on local
residents to reject Habibie's accountability speech.
(bsr/04/ylt/asa/24/43/har/edt)