Jakarta haunted by return of riots

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta lurched to the brink of a citywide riot on Saturday as sporadic outbreaks of looting sprung up in various parts of the city.

The worst hit areas were Senen and Sawah Besar in Central Jakarta, where about a dozen shops and banks were looted, torched or pelted with stones. Dozens of vehicles were also burnt.

In some locations, order appeared to break down completely, with cars being stopped arbitrarily and their occupants robbed.

With the devastating May riots still fresh in people's minds, most residents were expecting the worst and local security patrols were stepped up.

It was the combination of these civilian patrols, quick and persuasive military action, particularly from the Marine Corps, and a great deal of self restraint from Jakartans which prevented a recurrence of May's unrest.

Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djadja Suparman, speaking on Saturday evening, maintained that "the situation is still under control".

Nevertheless both he and Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso called on residents not to leave their houses after 10 p.m. for the rest of the weekend.

"This is not a curfew," Djadja quickly emphasized.

President B.J. Habibie also held separate meetings with Cabinet ministers, and religious and community leaders to review the situation and attempt to instill calm.

The tense atmosphere built up as a result of the bloody clashes between students and security personnel in the Semanggi cloverleaf area in South Jakarta on the previous night.

By Saturday morning an ill feeling towards military personnel had developed and a mob on Jl. Sudirman near Semanggi stopped vehicles, "hunting" for military personnel.

Maintaining security at strategic locations was largely left to the Navy's maroon beret marine corps, who's reputation survived intact.

On several occasions people shouted "Long live marines!" as the corps moved in to replace Army and police units perceived to be the culprits in the deaths of students over the past two days.

The grudge borne towards other elements of the military was evident, with trucks not belonging to the marines beng hailed with stones and shouts of "Communist!" when they passed along Jl. Gatot Subroto.

In a peculiar incident in the Senayan area of Central Jakarta, a member of the marine corps was hit in the leg by a bullet.

The head of the Marine Corps' information bureau, Maj. Ibrahim Sadong explained that "he was hit by a stray bullet and it's only a light wound". Ibrahim said the bullet was believed to have been fired by a police detachment stationed near Semanggi.

Looting

A crowd numbering in the hundreds gathered in the morning in the Salemba area near to the front of the University of Indonesia while students held a rally inside the campus.

The crowd became increasingly agitated, despite the best efforts of students to calm them down.

At about 10 a.m. a Kijang van with military license plates was turned over and set on fire by the crowd.

An eyewitness told The Jakarta Post that a mob became angry after the driver of the van honked the horn at people to move them out of the way.

The two military personnel inside the van escaped after being beaten by the mob.

The mob, which by now numbered over one thousand, then moved up the road towards the Senen area.

At around 3 p.m. they began looting shops on the lower level of Senen market. Many of the goods taken from the shops were then burnt in the middle of the road.

Many vehicles parked on the side of the road were vandalized or burned.

The mob then moved on to the Atrium shopping center, where several shops were ransacked.

The mayhem only stopped when a truck load of marines arrived on the scene and persuaded the crowd to calm down.

Marines were also able to dissuade a mob from attacking a police station in Kramat, Central Jakarta.

Saptohadi, a police assistant from the Krekot police station, said marines also stopped the mob from burning a Metro department store.

A crowd of several hundred continued marching towards the Sawah Besar area. They were joined by another mob and then wrecked havoc along Jl. Samanhudi and Jl. Pecenongan.

Screaming "We are hungry!" and "Long live students", they began pelting stones at several buildings. A motorcycle showroom, and a Bank Danamon office were torched and a Bank Tamara office in the area was ransacked.

Several small shops adjacent to the burning buildings also caught fire.

The owner of a jewelry store ran out of his shop carrying gold and money. He was fortunate to be saved by security personnel before the mob could get to him.

The progress of the hostile mob was quickly curtailed by soldiers, who were quick to block off major intersections in the area.

The rule of law also came to an end in the Cawang area of East Jakarta for several hours Saturday afternoon.

At around 1 p.m., mobs began to destroy anything in their path, including phone booths, flowerpots and road signs.

Witnesses said the security forces had abandoned the area after they were unable to stop a the wave of students forcing their way towards the Assembly building.

The situation got so out of control that several cars were stopped and robbed and a truck was turned upside down and set on fire.

An hour later, the masses moved towards Pancoran and set fire to three toll booths.

Two police stations, one on Jl. M.T. Haryono and one near Gelael Supermarket were also bombarded with stones.

It was not until 4:30 p.m. that three trucks of marines arrived to calm the situation.

Late yesterday evening it was reported that people had also scattered debris along parts of the Kebon Jeruk-Tangerang toll road, forcing cars to pick their way slowly along the route or turn back altogether.

By 10:30 p.m. on Saturday evening, most of Jakarta was reportedly calm, with no new reports of unrest. However the situation on the streets remained extremely tense. (team)