Students back on streets, march to House halted

JAKARTA (JP): Fifty-five students were arrested on Tuesday while marching toward the House of Representatives in Central Jakarta in a demonstration against the government.

The 55 arrested students, including eight females and three high school students, were part of a group of about 100 demonstrators grouped in the Student Action Front for Reform and Democracy (Famred).

They were arrested by 200 security officers from the Satgas Yustisia task force at the Semanggi cloverleaf, reportedly for had not informing the authorities of the rally plans and refusing to disperse within 30 minutes of being warned.

The security forces moved in as heavy rain started to fall. The students were taken away in two military trucks to city police headquarters for questioning, while the other students ran into the nearby Atma Jaya University campus compound.

No serious injuries were reported, but some security personnel were seen beating students.

"We'll record their identities and detain them in the name of justice," chief of the city police's alert unit Col. Arthur Damanik told reporters.

Arthur, who is also commander of the task force, said the students had apparently ignored the newly issued Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of expression.

"We can detain them for one day or if necessary 20 days because they have proven to have committed crimes," Arthur added.

Along with the arrest, police also confiscated a large banner, two megaphones and two red flags bearing the student group's symbol.

The students were still being detained by police as of 9 p.m. last night.

The chief of the city police's detective unit, Col. Alex Bambang R., said the 55 students would be tried for violating Article 510 of the Criminal Code concerning public rallies.

If convicted, they would be fined Rp 2,250 or jailed for a maximum of two weeks.

The demonstrators started their rally from the Atma Jaya University campus, blocking off one lane of Jl. Sudirman under the supervision of about 100 security members armed with batons and shields.

The students later marched some 300 meters from the campus compound before being blocked by another security cordon stopping them from entering Jl. Gatot Subroto, where the House is located.

During the rally, they demanded that the government under President B.J. Habibie give details on the foreign loans to Indonesia, expressing fears that the funds might be diverted to benefit the election campaigns of certain parties linked with authorities.

They urged reform supporters to end Habibie's government, said to have retained links with former president Soeharto and his family.

"The failure of Habibie's government to bring Soeharto and his family to trial and to remove all the Armed Forces seats from the House of Representatives, coupled with a series of riots incited by agitators, such as that in Ambon, show that the ideology of violence popular under Soeharto's government is still being implemented and should be purged with the reform spirit," they said in a statement.

The students also demanded an investigation into the shooting incident on Nov. 13, last year, when 16 died after security forces opened fire near the campus compound to end an anti- government protest. (ivy/emf)