Students actively defy ban on street demonstrations

Students actively defy ban on street demonstrations

BANDUNG (JP): Students of several local universities yesterday
staged another protest only five days after the West Java
military chief imposed a ban on all street demonstrations.

The students, who gathered at the Padjadjaran University,
however were prevented from marching into the streets as police
cordoned them off and confined them within the campus.

The protesters had originally intended to march to the local
legislative council, once again to echo their demands that the
government prosecute all officials suspected to be involved in
the Rp 1.3 trillion loan scandal at Bapindo, a government bank.

Similar protests over the past months often turned into ugly
clashes between the students and security officers, and caused
heavy traffic jams that Maj. Gen. Muzani Syukur, chief of the
Siliwangi Command, last week decided that enough was enough and
barred all street protests.

The students yesterday, who have formed the Bandung Student
and Youth Movement Alliance, pushed and shoved with security
officers as they tried to break the police cordon around the
campus.

Police offered the students to sent a 10-person delegation to
the legislative council to air their demands, but the gesture was
quickly rejected by the students.

"We are already representing thousands of other fellow-
students. There can't be a smaller representative group," one
student shouted at the security officers.

The students promised to walk peacefully, but the security
officers refused to buy this.

Bandung Military Chief Lt. Col. Usman DP and Central Bandung
Police Chief Lt. Col. Ade Rahardja were supervising the security
operation to ensure orderly and prevent the students from taking
to the streets.

The students finally gave in but not before making a point
that the military should remove the ban on street demonstration.
"The ban is a violation of democratic principles and has no legal
basis," said one student. (pet/pwn)