Thousands rally to mark Soeharto's resignation
Thousands rally to mark Soeharto's resignation
JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of protesters staged rallies here and
in several major towns across the country on Monday to mark the
third anniversary of former president Soeharto's resignation.
In Jakarta, hundreds of students grouped under the City Forum
(Forkot) rallied in front of the Attorney General's Office,
demanding the prosecutors bring the ailing former ruler to trial
for alleged corruption charges and misuse of power during his
almost 32 years in office.
Arriving in several mini buses, the students later staged a
protest inside the compound of the House of Representatives
before they moved toward Soeharto's residence in the plush
Menteng district in Central Jakarta.
Another group, the Indonesian Formal Students Institution
Alliance (Alfonso), staged a protest in front of the Merdeka
Palace in Central Jakarta to demand President Abdurrahman Wahid
resign for his failure to uphold the people's reform mandate.
The students said Abdurrahman's administration was a new form
of Soeharto's New Order regime.
On May 21, three years ago, Soeharto relinquished the
presidency following a wave of massive proreform student protests
and nationwide violence that claimed more than 400 lives.
The now 79-year-old former president has been named a suspect
in corruption charges.
Many expected the change would pave the way for sweeping
reforms, which would include the trial of corrupt officials and
those accused of past human rights abuse.
In Yogyakarta, violence almost marred the rally to commemorate
the third anniversary of Soeharto's downfall when some 80 members
of Anticommunist Paramilitary Movement (Gepako) met head on with
student protesters and threatened to "cleanse" them.
The protesters, representing the Anti New Order Students'
Alliance and National Students League for Democracy (LMND), had
to seek police assistance when they were leaving the Yogyakarta
provincial legislature on Jl. Malioboro.
Several Gepako members rushed into the complex, where
protesters were meeting with local councillors. The intruders
began to intimidate the students, while many others stood by
outside the complex.
"If you're communists, we (Gepako) will kill you," Gandung
Pardiman, Gepako's coordinator, told the protesters, saying that
the rallies had been orchestrated by communists.
Separately in Semarang, the capital of Central Java, around
100 students aired demands that Abdurrahman, Vice President
Megawati Soekarnoputri, DPR speaker Akbar Tandjung and the
Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais resign
due to their inability to run the government and to overcome the
nation's myriad problems.
The students staged a demonstration outside the Central Java
provincial council.
Meanwhile in the East Nusa Tenggara capital of Kupang,
students from various universities, rallied outside the local
provincial council building after marching through the town.
The students held orations and sang patriotic songs in their
protest, demanding the Golkar party be dissolved.
Hundreds of youths and students from various organizations and
student groups marched through the capital of West Java, Bandung,
to recollect the resignation of Soeharto.
The demonstrators distributed leaflets in which they warned of
the possible return of the New Order and military to the
political stage.
"We are disappointed that after three years following
Soeharto's downfall, there has yet to be any significant progress
in our country," one of the protesters, Febrianto, told
reporters. (har/25/23/30)