Protesters take over radio station in Semarang
JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of student protesters in the Central Java capital of Semarang, joined by hundreds of city residents, took over the state-owned Radio Republik Indonesia station yesterday forcing the radio station to air their demands for reform.
The student demands for total reform, lower prices of essential goods, an extraordinary session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and a stop to all violence were read on the air by a radio announcer at 2:15 p.m. and later again by one of the students at 3:30 p.m., Antara reported.
The takeover proceeded smoothly and there were no reports of major damages to the studio building.
Hundreds of security personnel stood nearby but did not move against the peaceful protest action.
The security officers then escorted the students and residents as they marched down the city streets to the governor's office.
"The security apparatus' approach to the demonstrators was sympathetic. Meanwhile, the students also showed commendable self-restraint," the chairman of the provincial legislature office, Alip Pandoyo, said.
Three kilometers from the scene, 5,000 students gathered near Governor Soewardi's residence, chanting insults.
Soewardi at one point tried to talk to the students but had plastic water bottles thrown at him.
Despite an absence of violence, the protests worried many shop owners in the city, prompting them to close early.
In Surakarta, Central Java, dozens of students were injured -- some hit by rubber bullets -- when police opened fire at demonstrating students of Surakarta Muhammadiyah University who tried to break through a police barricade.
The violence triggered a riot by thousands of people outside the campus on Jl. Pabelan in the city outskirts. The mob burned 15 buildings and six cars along Jl. Slamet Riyadi and Jl. Purwosari over a nine-kilometer stretch.
Minor violence
Minor violence also occurred yesterday in Bogor, West Java, when hundreds of people outside the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) threw stones at 10,000 students staging an on- campus demonstration.
They did so because the students refused to join them in a march on the streets.
Rallies -- staged to mourn four Trisakti University students killed Tuesday in Jakarta, condemned the practices of nepotism, corruption and collusion in the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) -- were also staged in Ibnu Khaldun University and Pakuan University.
They also demanded yesterday that the MPR hold an extraordinary session to demand President Soeharto explain how the country had come to its predicament.
In Medan, North Sumatra, thousands of students also demonstrated at Sumatera Utara University to mourn the deaths of the country's "heroes of reform".
They marched off their campus only to be stopped 600 meters away by security forces.
A friendly negotiation took place between the students and officers from the Armed Forces Strategic Reserves Command who were at the scene.
The students then sat on the street and held a free-speech forum. They sang antigovernment songs and many posed for photographs with the soldiers.
In Purwokerto, Central Java, over 3,000 protesting students at the National Islamic College (STAIN) were dispersed by tear gas when they tried to break a police barricade to march off to the streets.
In Bandung, West Java, over 100,000 students from several universities gathered at the provincial legislature office to demand for total government reform. (team)