Jakarta – Indonesian police fired warning shots and tear gas Thursday to disperse hundreds of militant students protesting near the residence of former president Suharto to demand he be brought to trial.
The first shots were fired in the air as dusk fell and as the some 750 students, frustrated at their inability to get closer to Suharto's home, began to pelt the security personnel with stones and molotov cocktails.
The students, mostly from three militant student groups – Famred, Forkot and KMJ – had converged on the upmarket Menteng residential area where Suharto lives. But they were held off some 200 metres from the former president's home by at least 500 security troops, including police in full riot gear.
Police pushed the students back some 400 metres north to a market area where the protestors began to burn rubbish and tyres and damaged a police post there. After a brief respite when both camps stayed in their own lines, the police charged into the crowd with battons and chased the students for another 400 metres from the market area.
As the cat-and-mouse street battles dragged on until after dark, police used water cannons to disperse the last resisting groups and douse the small fires they had lit, and used tear gas against the students who remained in the market area.
Suharto, who on Monday escaped questioning by officials over alleged corruption during his 32-year rule for medical reasons, and on Wednesday was slapped with a travel ban, was believed to have been inside his residence during the protest.
There were no immediate reports of serious injuries, but several students and at least one reporter were at the receiving end of stones thrown by both sides during the violence.
The students carried flags of their organizations and anti- Suharto posters, including one that recommended five ways of punishing the former president – including hanging and castration.
Thursday's protest was the latest of several near Suharto's home in the past month. Two of the demonstrations have turned violent, with clashes between the students and police leaving scores injured.