Ex-hotel workers protest violence

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers representing 500 dismissed workers of Shangri-La Hotel lashed out at the measures taken by police to halt a rally their clients held to protest the reopening of the hotel on Saturday.

The lawyers, from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association and the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, said in a statement issued hours after the rally that police failed to remain neutral in the labor dispute between the hotel management and workers.

In the statement, the lawyers demanded that police officers who took part in dispersing rally be dismissed for their "brutal actions in response to a peaceful rally".

At least 15 protesters were injured when police officers moved in to disperse the demonstrators, who were protesting the hotel's reopening after a three-month closure.

The lawyers identified one of the injured as Ita, who is pregnant.

"The uncivilized actions ... tragically may have killed Ita's fetus," the lawyers said. (amd)