Violence mars demos in Jakarta, Medan

JAKARTA (JP): Violence marred student demonstrations here and in the North Sumatra capital of Medan yesterday, leaving dozens of students injured and public property and some vehicles damaged.

Jakarta witnessed a wave of student protests held simultaneously in East, South and Central Jakarta. It took traffic police hours to unravel the resulting heavy congestion in many parts of the city.

The worst student demonstrations here yesterday occurred on Jl. Pemuda, East Jakarta, in front of the northern entrance to the state-run Jakarta Teachers' Training Institute (IKIP Jakarta).

The rally started at 11:45 a.m. when some 2,000 students from 19 local universities gathered at the campus' north gate, where security was still lax. They immediately went out, formed a line and tried to march along the street.

They had been walking for only 50 meters when 300 security officials, equipped with body shields and rattan batons and armed with shotguns and tear gas canisters, arrived and blocked their way.

Tension and jostling occurred when the riot police rejected the students' request to continue their march to the nearby Jakarta University.

The students then staged their protest on the street, demanding the government's immediate response to calls for political and economic reforms, and for efforts to bring down the soaring prices of basic commodities.

Waving banners and posters critical of the government, the students also called on President Soeharto to step down.

Dozens of students and two security officials were either injured or collapsed after the students clashed with security at about 1:30 p.m.

Six of the students were wounded by rubber bullets. They were identified as Atin, Yeni Yuniani and Rina of IKIP Jakarta, Aria Dewanto of Driyarkara Institute of Philosophy, Feri Sinorat of Trisakti University and Aswin of Ibnu Chaldun University.

Atin, who was wounded on her forehead, Feri, who was wounded on his left arm, and Yeni and Rina, who were both injured in the stomach, were rushed to the nearby state Persahabatan Hospital, while Aria was taken to St. Carolus Hospital in Salemba.

A photographer from Sinar weekly, Tutang Mukhtar, was beaten by a security official when he took pictures of the incident. A police officer grabbed a camera of a foreign photojournalist, who also lost his cellular phone.

In Medan, student demonstrations were also simultaneously staged in several parts of the North Sumatra capital.

At the private HKBP Nomensen University, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, hundreds of students removed a minivan from a car- dealer shop and burned it.

A pickup and a sedan were also damaged because students threw stones at them. The windows of several shops and restaurants, as well as those of Sahid Angkasa Hotel, were smashed by stones thrown by students.

Similar demonstrations were staged by the Teachers' Training Institute of Medan, Sumatra Utara Islamic University, Sisingamangaraja University, Sumatra Utara Muhammadiyah University and the Kesatrian Computer Management Academy.

A number of students were arrested and questioned, including five from the Teachers' Training Institute of Medan.

Medan police chief Lt. Col. Nono Priyono said those questioned have all been released. (imn/edt/21)