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)