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)