Ten injured as police break up rally in Riau
Ten injured as police break up rally in Riau
JAKARTA (JP): At least 10 students were injured when police
broke up a sit-in at the office of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia in
Rumbai, some 10 kilometers north of Riau's capital Pekanbaru.
Antara news agency reported that police fired tear gas and
rubber bullets to disperse the students, who had tore down the
gate in front of the office building of the country's largest
private oil company. The officers from the National Police's
Mobile Brigade also used rattan batons to break up the rally.
The students, numbering around 500, resisted the officers with
stones before scattering.
A lecturer at Riau University, Zulkifli M.S., said one of the
students was severely wounded by what he believed was a rubber
bullet. Antara identified a number of the injured students as
Bimbim, Herman, Riki and Nurma.
Zulkifli said the students were disappointed with the
company's rejection of their demand that they shut down
operations for three days beginning on Thursday, in observance of
the Riau People's Congress II scheduled to wind up on Saturday.
PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) vice president for special
projects Tengku Amir Sulaiman met with the students, telling them
suspending the company's operations would cause a blackout across
the province, which receives its power supply from the joint-
venture firm.
It was the second incident of violence targeting the company
in less than a year. Some 1,500 students attacked a housing
complex belonging to CPI in April last year, after the company
dismissed their demand that the province be given a 10 percent
share of the company's oil exploitation revenue.
Violence also broke out on the neighboring island of Bintan on
Sunday, as security personnel dispersed hundreds of protesting
farmers demanding greater compensation for land they sold for the
development of an industrial estate 10 years ago. During their
week-long protests, the farmers took over a power plant in the
industrial estate.
Zulkifli also said the students were angered by a comment made
by President Abdurrahman Wahid last month in response to calls
for independence in the province. The President was quoted as
saying that "Riau is nothing" and would not be able to survive as
an independent country.
"President Abdurrahman agitated the students, and to make
things worse their aspirations are not being accommodated at the
Riau Congress," Zulkifli said.
The President recently met with a number of community leaders
from Riau, who told him the people in the province demanded
"freedom from injustice".
Riau contributes around half of the 1.5 million barrels of
crude oil Indonesia produces per day.
Abdurrahman offered in November to return to Riau 75 percent
of its oil revenue, but in this year's draft budget only 15
percent is slated to return to the province.
A local leader, Tabrani Rab, regretted the violence but
refused to place all of the blame on the students.
"The violence would not have occurred if the government heeded
the people of Riau's demand for a fair share of oil revenue,"
Tabrani said.
He said he spoke with Riau military commander Col. Musni Harun
on the eve of the student demonstration in anticipation of
violence. (amd)