Farmers stage protest in Medan
MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): Thousands of farmers from a number of regencies in the province staged a peaceful demonstration at the governor's office here on Wednesday to demand land ownership reform.
The farmers, grouped in the People's Movement for Agrarian Reform, urged the government to settle numerous land disputes in the province and to draw up a bill on farmers' rights protection.
Escorted by hundreds of security personnel, the farmers arrived at the office in dozens of buses. They came from Deli Serdang, Labuhan Batu, Padang Tualang, Langkat and a number of other areas.
Fifty five representatives of the protesters met with Governor T. Rizal Nurdin and called on President B.J. Habibie to issue a presidential decree on land reform and revoke presidential decrees that inflict losses upon farmers.
Rizal promised to try to settle the land disputes.
During the meeting, thousands of other farmers held a free- speech forum in the grounds of the governor's office.
Separately, dozens of Nommensen University students protested at the provincial legislature in Medan to demand lower prices of basic commodities. "Efforts to rescue the people from the impending food crisis have not been sufficient," student leader Kalmon Sinaga said.
In Palu, Central Sulawesi, hundreds of students clashed with employees of the governor's office on Wednesday as they attempted to occupy the building. Antara reported that at least 10 people were injured after the two camps pelted stones at each other.
Two of the injured, identified as Iskandar Lamuka and Datupila, were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Police are still investigating the motives behind the students' attack on the building. No arrests have been made so far.
The news agency also reported that losses from last week's riots in the town of Bagansiapi-api in the Bengkalis district of Riau could reach Rp 15 billion.
"Three hundred and twenty two shops, shophouses, office buildings and houses were badly damaged during the riots," Bengkalis district head Fadlah Sulaiman said on Wednesday.
Rebuilding Bagansiapi-api would require at least Rp 1 billion, he added.
Sulaiman also lamented the authorities slow response to riots, particularly since a smaller, less destructive riot occurred three days before the worst of last week's unrest in the town.
The most important thing, Sulaiman said, was to restore harmony to give the people a sense of security. Bagansiapi-api, he said, was prone to clashes because of the large social gap between its residents.
In Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, Mayor H.A. Malik B. Masry said losses from strikes and demonstrations held in the city since April had reached around Rp 1.1 billion.
"Employees from eight firms have held demonstrations involving 962 workers," Malik said in a meeting on wages with representatives of 200 companies here. The Ujungpandang mayoralty currently lists 50,951 people as unemployed.
Malik said that meeting workers' demands for higher wages was a dilemma in the eyes of the 5,038 firms which employ 73,827 people in the mayoralty. However, he said, company managements should at least pay their staff the minimum monthly wage of Rp 129,500. (21/anr/byg)