Students rally near Habibie's house

Students rally near Habibie's house

JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested dozens of protesting students
for staging an illegal street rally near President B.J. Habibie's
residence on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on
Friday.

The 80 students, including 15 women, were from the Trisakti
University Students Action.

"They are still being questioned at city police headquarters,
but I don't think we plan to detain them," city police detectives
chief Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo told The Jakarta Post.

The students were protesting the proposed bill on state
security and civilian militia.

The House of Representative is currently deliberating the
widely criticized bill.

"We also seized some banners as evidence of the offense," Alex
said, adding the students faced charges of violating Law No.
9/1998 on Freedom of Expression.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis said police were
forced to disperse the rally because the students did not give
police prior notification of the demonstration, as required by
the law. He also said the protest disrupted public activities.

"They planned to stage the protest in front of Habibie's
residence, but we managed to block them in front of the Ministry
of Health, which is only a few meters away from the restricted
area around the presidential house," Lubis said. (emf)