Thousands rally with divided calls

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of students across the country took to the streets on Monday with divided calls but a unified claim to uphold the reform movement.

No clashes were reported in the first massive head-to-head meeting between anti-Abdurrahman protesters and his supporters.

In what many believed to be the biggest rally ever, over 5,000 students from some 40 universities across Java and Sumatra marched from the University of Indonesia (UI) campus on Jl. Salemba, Central Jakarta to the House of Representatives to express their full support of the House special committee investigating two financial scandals allegedly involving President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

"How can Gus Dur lead the country, if he is proven corrupt. He should just step down," Andre Rosiade, president of students of private Trisakti University said in his speech.

Coming mostly from UI, the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), State Academy of Islamic Studies (IAIN) and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the students carried flags and posters inscribed with anti-Gus Dur slogans.

Traffic was blocked on Jl. Gatot Subroto as the marchers approached the House complex under the watchful eyes of more than 3,000 police officers deployed around the grounds.

Inside the House complex, legislators were debating the results of the inquiry into the financial scandals.

Police and riot troops blocked access to the House at noon as the wave of massed demonstrators approached and tried to break into the compound.

Teargas were fired at least five times by City Police at about 1:25 p.m. after students crashed the building's main gate.

The teargas scared nearby residents and sent students, some armed with rocks, running towards a nearby overpass and Taman Ria Senayan Park.

The students immediately regrouped, and managed to slide the gate open to enter the compound, only to face a cordon of police armed with batons, teargas masks and shields.

At 2:30 p.m., police allowed the protesting students to enter the compound for Muslim prayers. By that time, most students had decided to disperse and leave the compound.

Separately, city police detectives arrested five protesters for possession of weapons, only one of whom was a Jakarta resident.

"We are investigating the possibility that these five protesters could be provocateurs," chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu told reporters on Monday.

Harry identified the five as Mur Taufik, 40, a resident of Bangkalan, Madura in East Java; M. Sidik, 42, a resident of Batu Merah in Ambon; Letnur Iskandar, 25, a resident of Depok, West Java; Imron, 18, a resident of Bangkalan Madura; and Harun, 37, a resident of Koja, North Jakarta.

Police seized daggers, a knife and a sickle from the five men.

Late in the afternoon, hundreds of Gus Dur supporters, arrived to demand the dissolution of Golkar Party as the symbol of the New Order regime.

The protesters came from various groups such as the People's Democratic Party (PRD), Student Action Front for Reform and Democracy (Famred) and Student League for Democracy (LMND).

Meanwhile, the University of Indonesia Alumni Association (Iluni-UI) in a press briefing on Monday also demanded the dissolution of Golkar, which they accused of obstructing the reform movement.

"Dissolving Golkar is the only way to put the reform movement back on track," Iluni-UI Chairman Hariyadi Darmawan said.

Amid the boisterous rally, a House staffer admitted to have received a bomb threat on Monday afternoon. The caller said a bomb had been placed on the third floor of the building.

The National Police bomb squad checked the building soon after and found nothing.

In the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar various groups of students took turns marching to the provincial legislature on Monday, taking down the picture of Abdurrahman from the wall, saying that they did not trust the President any longer.

"The removal of the President's photograph symbolizes that Makassar people do not trust him any longer," Atok Suharto, the student spokesman, said.

They took the President's picture after the speaker of the legislative council, Amin Syam, refused to issue written support of the students's demand for a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and Gus Dur's resignation.

In Bandung, West Java, more than 100 teenagers grouped in the People for Constitution (MPK) converged on the provincial legislative council on Jl. Diponegoro, expressing their support for Gus Dur and Megawati.

The teenagers, who hailed from Majalaya, South Bandung, demanded that Akbar Tandjung and Amien Rais, speakers of DPR and MPR respectively, step down.

"We call on the people not to trust the bogus reformists, who have provoked people to do anything for their own interests," a participant said. The other protesters yelled "Long live Gus Dur".

Separately in Bandung, some 100 artists from the People's Coalition Against New Order (KROAB) held a street rally urging the government and DPR to clear themselves of New Order remnants.

The protesters carried the head of a pig, which they said symbolized political elite from the New Order regime.

In the East Java capital, Surabaya, some 50 students clad in jilbab (headscarf for Muslim women) gathered at the Surabaya mayoralty legislature, protesting violence.

The protesters, claiming to be from Women Against Violence (Permata), stretched banners protesting the use of violence in political activities. "Don't Handle Demonstrations by Deploying Hoodlums", one of the banners read.

Another student demonstration took place in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, on Monday.

Claiming that they were tired of Gus Dur, the students said that Sumatra must be independent from Indonesia. "There is no reason to support Gus Dur. Independent Sumatra will be an alternative," Samsudin Harahap, the student spokesman, said.

The students of the Islamic Students Association (HMI) of the West Sumatra chapter marched to the provincial legislative council, demanding that Gus Dur resign. (team)