Traffic comes to a halt on capital's streets

Traffic comes to a halt on capital's streets

JAKARTA (JP): The capital saw thousands of disgruntled
motorists and commuters on Monday afternoon as the city was
trapped in a severe traffic jam due to the street blockade by
student protesters, who strongly demanded the re-investigation of
the death of their fellow friends in the November 1998 shooting
at the Semanggi area.

During the rally, the group of hundreds of student protesters
from several organizations also demanded the resignation of
President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid for his alleged failure to
bring significant recovery to the country.

No clashes were reported but the protest, which started from
Atma Jaya University near the site of the incident to the
legislators building, Hotel Mulia and Plaza Senayan shopping
center in Senayan area, created bumper-to-bumper traffic on many
major streets and toll roads in the heart of the capital and made
it impossible for traffic to move in any direction.

"It's a very big headache," said a co-owner of a computer
shop, who had to zig-zag to find alternative routes but still
spent around two hours to reach her home in Pejompongan from
Senayan Plaza. She usually only needs less than 15 minutes on
normal days.

"These students look so stupid and arrogant to me because they
create trouble for the public to get the government's attention,"
the businesswoman said.

The protesters, who mostly came from student organizations,
such as Forkot (City Forum), Forbes (Student Collective Forum)
and Famred (Student Action Front for Reform and Democracy), also
demanded the government bring former president Soeharto and his
cronies to court, seize their assets and investigate all alleged
human rights abuses of the past, especially those committed by
the military.

The students initially rallied in the afternoon on the
roadside of busy Jl. Sudirman in front of the Atma Jaya
university, very near the Semanggi cloverleaf; the site of the
fatal 1998 shooting by the security authorities, that killed five
students and injured several others.

Heavy traffic congestion began here.

At about the same time when many people began to leave their
offices, the protesters marched from Semanggi to the west,
heading for the People's Consultative Assembly/House of
Representatives (MPR/DPR) building.

The flow of traffic, from all the four directions toward the
Semanggi cloverleaf, was then immediately halted.

Upon their arrival at the MPR/DPR building, the students were
joined by hundreds of people from other organizations, who also
demanded that Gus Dur resign. The President is in Doha, Qatar,
attending the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)
Organization.

Late in the afternoon, the students moved toward the nearby
Mulia Hotel since they believed that Soeharto's youngest son,
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who has been named a fugitive, was
hiding somewhere in the building.

Hundreds of police personnel and the hotel's security
personnel immediately blocked the students from entering the
hotel, which is partly owned by Tommy's elder brother, Bambang
Trihatmodjo.

Tommy has gone missing after he was convicted of a Rp 76.7
billion graft case.

A police personnel who talked with representatives of the
protesters said the students had no right at all to search for
Tommy in the hotel.

"Searching for Tommy is the police's job. If you have proof
that Tommy is hiding inside this hotel, you should report that to
the police and we'll do the search," the police officer
explained.

After staying for about half an hour in front of the hotel,
the students left peacefully toward Senayan Plaza shopping mall
to hold a rally there.

The students only rallied in front of the shopping mall for
several minutes then peacefully marched back to Atma Jaya
University. (jaw/asa/nvn/bsr)