Students stage more protests

Students stage more protests

JAKARTA (JP): A string of major student protests were held in
a number of cities yesterday, but security was notably more lax
than for previous days of demonstrations.

On the campus of Lampung University in Bandarlampung -- where
students and riot police clashed and 60 students were arrested on
Thursday -- 300 students continued with their demands for lower
priced basic commodities, political reform and the replacement of
controversial new cabinet ministers.

The rally passed peacefully amid light security, Ibrahim
Bastari from the Lampung Legal Aid Foundation told The Jakarta
Post in a telephone interview yesterday.

Ibrahim said that seven students were continuing with a hunger
strike, which they began Thursday, to draw attention to their
demands for reform.

Students are enraged at the government's handling of the worst
economic crisis to hit the country in decades. They also want
democratic reforms and believe the newly established cabinet,
which includes Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardijanti
Rukmana, is nepotistic.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar repudiated
reports that several middle-ranking police officers had been
taken hostage by students in exchange for their detained
colleagues yesterday.

"There is no hostage situation. What really happened was that
four officers went onto the campus to have a discussion with the
students," he said.

Da'i claimed that some reporters misunderstood the situation.

"There were some students who yelled during the protest:
'Let's take these police hostage in exchange for our friends.'
But that was only a bluff. They did not really do it," he said.

Students also held rallies in Surakarta, Central Java, and in
Jakarta yesterday.

Some 9,000 students gathered at the Sebelas Maret University
in Surakarta, watched by 1,000 security officers outside the
university grounds. The students came from Yogyakarta, Semarang,
Salatiga and Sukoharjo.

At least two armored vehicles and dozens of military trucks
were seen near the university.

Scuffles between the students and security personnel broke out
during a demonstration on Tuesday and dozens of students required
medical attention for bruising.

In Jakarta, 50 students staged a free speech forum at the
Jakarta office of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Students
on Jl. Cilosari, Central Jakarta.

They demanded that the People's Consultative Assembly convene
a special session if the government fails to overcome the severe
economic crisis within six months.

Student leaders also demanded dialog with the President,
rather than with the military, as Armed Forces Commander Gen.
Wiranto recently offered.

Wiranto said he had instructed all levels of the military to
be prepared to meet and talk with student groups.

"We want a dialog with the number one man," Irfan Gani from
the University of Indonesia's School of Economics told assembled
journalists.

Wiranto said the Armed Forces headquarters will begin to
actively seek to help the government settle the monetary crisis
yesterday.

"We will either visit university campuses to hold dialog with
the students, or invite them to the Armed Forces headquarters for
the same purpose," he told reporters after a ceremony to install
Lt. Gen. Fachrul Razi as the new Armed Forces Chief of General
Affairs and Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the new Armed
Forces Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs.

Wiranto said his office had already received numerous requests
for dialog from students and other groups in society.

"However, we need time to make the necessary arrangements for
the dialog," he said. "We have started dialog with students...but
we now need to intensify it due to the crisis."

Addressing the ceremony, Wiranto called on the nation to
remain patient in the face of hardship, and allow the government
to work to settle the crisis.

"No one should distract the government from efforts to bring
the nation through the monetary crisis," he said.

Susilo said that dialog could also be held in any regional
military command or police office across the country.

Clashes between security forces and students have left dozens
of students injured in Surabaya, Surakarta, Bandung and Lampung
over the past weeks.

Security officials have warned they will not tolerate street
rallies but will allow demonstrations within university grounds.

The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation denounced the military on
Thursday for its use of force in breaking up some protests. It
said security forces had violated campus autonomy and other human
rights. (har/cst/imn/byg)