Police arrest eight after clash with students
Police arrest eight after clash with students
JAKARTA (JP): Central Jakarta Police arrested eight people on
Tuesday, following a clash between police and protesting students
outside the campuses of the Indonesian Persada University (UPI)
and YAI accounting school on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.
The clash started when police officers blocked the path of the
student demonstrators, who had planned to march to the vice
presidential palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central
Jakarta.
Despite the blockade, the students kept trying to break
through the police barricade.
Students from the nearby Indonesian Christian University (UKI)
campus also on Jl. Diponegoro joined the protest against the 30
percent hike in fuel prices, causing heavy traffic.
Police on motorcycles arrived at the scene and immediately
cleared Jl. Diponegoro, which resulted in a clash between
students and police officers.
Some students inside their campuses helped fellow students on
the street by pelting stones at about 200 police officers.
The angry police officers chased the students on their
motorcycles while other officers fired tear gas, causing the
students to run into their campuses and Cipto Mangunkusumo
General Hospital to take refuge.
The clash caused heavy traffic when the road to Jl. Salemba
from Jl. Diponegoro was closed for two hours.
One student, Aji, who was seriously wounded above his right
eye by shattered tear gas shell, said he did not know about the
students actions.
"I just wanted to take some pictures when an officer suddenly
pointed his weapon at my head in my campus," he said at the
emergency ward of RSCM.
Under the supervision of Central Jakarta Police chief Comr.
Mathius Salempang, police detectives searched each car leaving
UPI campus, and detained six students: Didit, Yori, Aditya,
Ricky, Bram and Roy.
"The six students had been under police surveillance since
Monday's clashes here," Salempang said.
Two UKI students were also later picked up, and beaten by
police before being hauled off to the Central Jakarta Police
station.
Separately, city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam
said on Tuesday that since Saturday's student protests on the
hike in fuel prices, police had so far detained 40 people for
questioning, some of whom had been released.
Meanwhile, students of Moestopo University burned tires in
protest over the rise in fuel prices on Jl. Hang Lekir in South
Jakarta on Tuesday.
The students were seen stopping public minivans and demanding
drivers ask their passengers to get out of the minivans.
The drivers were then asked to join their protest. Some were
even threatened that their minivans would be burned if they did
not join the protest.
The demonstration caused a traffic jam in the area,
particularly on Jl. Asia Afrika.
Student protests also continued at the State Institute of
Islamic Studies (IAIN) campus in Ciputat, Tangerang, where the
worst clash between students and police occurred on Monday.
Students were seen demanding donations from drivers of passing
vehicles to fund their protest. The protests on Tuesday ended
peacefully. (01/ylt)