Thousands rally with divided calls

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)