Police break up protest by women giving flowers

JAKARTA (JP): Police broke up a small, peaceful, demonstration by housewives complaining about soaring prices at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout on Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta yesterday.

Three of the dozen protesters, who handed out flowers to the scores of heavily armed soldiers deployed at the scene in front of several international hotels, were arrested because the group had acted without a police permit, officials said.

The three, including astronomer Karlina Leksono, were charged with holding a demonstration without a permit.

Protests over skyrocketing prices and the political situation also took place at the Taman Ismail Marzuki Art Center in Central Jakarta and in Yogyakarta.

At the art center, the 30-minute silent protest by 24 activists ended without incident while in Yogyakarta, six Gadjah Mada students went on a hunger strike to demand political reform.

Central Jakarta police chief Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna told reporters that the housewives would be held for questioning after being driven away in the back of a pick-up.

"They did not have a permit to hold the protest and will be questioned," Iman said.

The women, calling themselves The Voice of Concerned Mothers, first displayed banners complaining about the soaring prices of basic commodities and sang patriotic songs.

"Safeguard our milk supply," said one banner.

A statement distributed by the protesters blamed the current dire economic situation on "the government which does not pay attention to the interests of the common people and represses their voices."

The women wanted the government to guarantee the availability of essential commodities.

"We feel that the crisis in Indonesia is a great cause of concern," they said, adding that the price of basic commodities such as rice, cooking oil and especially milk had "soared beyond reach."

The housewives denounced the arrests last night, saying that the authorities had violated the protesters' basic right to express ideas and demanded their prompt release.

In the art center protest, activists grouped in the Solidarity for Amien and Megawati (Siaga) demanded that the government lower prices and initiate political reform.

They were sympathizers of self-styled presidential candidate Megawati Soekarnoputri and government critic Amien Rais.

They clutched strips of black cloth and during their silent demonstration to protest Indonesia's economic crisis and political system that they considered is undemocratic.

The demonstrators held their fists in the air at the main entrance at the center.

The group's coordinator, Ratna Sarumpaet, said that the group chose the silent approach because most of the people bearing the brunt of the current crisis were the silent majority.

"We've gone and talked to the National Commission on Human Rights and even to the House of Representatives but nobody has heard us," she said.

Ratna also criticized the heavy security approach that the government adopts to maintain stability, leaving practically no room for the public to get their voices heard.

In Yogyakarta, the six students, two of them female, from the School of Philosophy began their hunger strike on the campus to dramatize their demand that the government should start political reform.

Wearing white headbands, they vowed to continue the protest until the government listened to their demands.

High on their list of demands was that the government should lower prices of basic commodities. They called on certain groups in the government and in society to stop exploiting highly sensitive racial, religious and societal grouping issues to divert public attention from the actual issue.

"The current crisis was mostly caused by a moral crisis," said the students' spokesman Danang. (23/emf/byg)