Raid on vendors ends in clash

JAKARTA: The eviction of street vendors in Cawang area of East Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon has end with clashes between public order officers and students of the Christian University of Indonesia (UKI), whose campus is located nearby.

Hurling stones at each other, at least 19 people -- 11 of them public order officers -- were injured in the clash.

The officers had been evicting vendors and taking away their merchandise in trucks earlier in the day. They came back for the second operation in the afternoon, standing-by in front of the UKI campus on Jl. Mayjen Sutoyo.

"We were about to go back to the office when, suddenly, dozens of students ran out of the campus. Then the clash erupted," said Yusmin, who led the operation.

A truck and a minivan parked nearby were damaged in the clash.

The students dispersed after the police arrived and fired four warning shots. -- JP