Thu, 09 Sep 1999

Flag burning arouses anti-Australian sentiments

JAKARTA (JP): Antiforeigner sentiments marked a series of demonstrations which took place across the capital on Wednesday.

A group of some 200 students from private Sahid University staged a protest in front of the Australian Embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said in South Jakarta. Several of the protesters were able to enter the embassy's compound, where they lowered the Australian flag and raised the Indonesian flag in its place.

Another group of several hundred protesters from the People's Sovereignty and National Unity Struggle staged a demonstration in front of the United Nations office on Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta, where they burned the UN and Australian flags.

Chanting the national anthem, Indonesia Raya, the protesters in front of the Australian Embassy said they were retaliating against the recent burning of an Indonesian flag in Melbourne, Australia.

After entering the embassy's compound and raising an Indonesian flag, the students returned to their campus on Jl. Sahardjo in South Jakarta at 3 p.m.

A security officer at the embassy, Haryanto, said a few minutes before the protesters dispersed, an embassy staff member gave him a letter expressing the Australian government's regret over "recent violent protests within Indonesian consular premises in Australia".

At 5.30 p.m, an embassy employee, assisted by two embassy security guards and a local staff member, lowered the Indonesian flag and raised the Australian flag.

Meanwhile, the protesters in front of the UN office denounced the results of the East Timor ballot, accusing the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) of manipulating the ballot count to favor the proindependence camp.

Two other groups, the Nationalist Youth Unity and the Communication Forum of the Children of Veterans of East Timor's Seroja Operation, later joined the protest.

Separately, some 150 members of the National Mandate for the Struggle of Democracy gathered on Wednesday on the Taman Ria flyover in Central Jakarta to protest military violence in East Timor.

They demanded President B.J. Habibie and the military be held responsible for the ongoing massacres in East Timor which followed the UN-sponsored ballot on Aug. 30. The demonstration broke up at 3:40 p.m.

Earlier in the morning, some 30 East Timorese youths, carrying the flag of the National Resistance Council for an Independent East Timor, staged a demonstration in front of the defense ministry to demand the military's withdrawal from the territory.

Unable to meet ministry officials, the demonstrators moved to the U.S. Embassy, where they called on the U.S. government to endorse the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in East Timor.

Separately, members of the Democratic People's Party (PRD) staged a protest against the House of Representatives' deliberation of the national security bill.

"The bill, if enacted, will be used by the military to suppress the democratic movement in the country," the protesters said.

The PRD members attempted to march to the Ministry of Defense, but were blocked by riot police at the Farmers Monument in Central Jakarta. (asa/03/04/ylt)