Police beat students for flag-burning

Police beat students for flag-burning

JAKARTA (JP): Riot police beat nine university students after
they burned the flags of the ruling Golkar Party and the United
States of America and tried to enter the Merdeka Palace compound
on Monday.

The youths, who identified themselves as members of Mercu
Buana University Students Action Union (KAM-UMB), were taken to
police headquarters.

The police were yet to issue a statement on the incident as of
Monday afternoon.

"With the flag burning, we declare war on the New Order
government and with new imperialists' undertakings in Indonesia
by industrial countries such as the U.S.," the students said in a
statement released on Monday.

Accusing the government and the U.S. of causing bankruptcy to
Indonesia, the students branded the government a corrupt
administration that deprived the people of their rights.

They also denounced Washington as taking advantage of the
concept of globalization to dominate the Indonesian market.

The clash occurred at about 2 p.m. when a bus carrying the
nine students stopped at a traffic light opposite the
presidential palace. The students burned the flags inside the bus
before alighting from the vehicle and rushing toward the palace.

The bus driver quickly extinguished the fire with water he
brought for the radiator.

"It never occurred to me that the students would burn the
flags inside my bus, and luckily I saw the fire." He said the
students hired the bus from Blok M Bus Terminal in South Jakarta.

Troops, who have been put on alert around the palace,
arrested the students and forced them into a van to take them to
the headquarters in South Jakarta. (04)