Jakarta – Violence marred an anti-Soeharto protest held by the City Forum (Forkot) group in Central Jakarta yesterday. Police had to disperse the protesters with tear gas. Four protesters were wounded after being beaten by the police.
The anti-Soeharto protesters of Forkot were involved in the clash with police after they were not permitted to hold their demonstration in front of Soehartos residence on Jl. Cendana, Menteng, Central Jakarta. Police managed to turn back the protesters on Jl. Suwiryo, the last road before Soehartos house later yesterday.
Realizing that they would not be allowed to hold the protest near Soehartos house, the angry protesters then made allegedly turned their anger against the police. The police retaliated with practiced brutality and at least two students were seen caught and beaten ruthlessly by the police.
A number of private security personnel, who guard Soehartos compound could not resist a little action and soon joined their police brothers in attacking the unarmed and defenseless demonstrators.
After failing to hold their protest in front of the Soeharto compound many students of Forkot marched back to the nearby Megaria junction in Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta where their colleagues were already prepared with Molotov cocktails along the way.
The demonstrators then blockaded the road into the evening. Shortly after nightfall, two police trucks loaded with Police anti-riot shock troops were passing through Jl. Diponegoro to curb another riot in Matraman, Central Jakarta where people were attempting to set fire to the Hotel Mega Matra is run by a rival neighborhood gang.
The Forkot protesters mistook the anti-riot troops intentions, they were under the impression that the troops were there to nab them, so Forkot proceeded to pelt the anti-riot trucks with Molotov cocktails, when in fact, they were merely commuting to work. Just another day in Jakarta. The police retaliated by shooting tear gas at them. Many of the police troops jumped off the truck and chased them.
Two perpetrators who threw the Molotov cocktails were nabbed and viciously beaten by the police. A policeman named First Brigade Wahyudin suffered a minor head wound from a rock presumably hurled by one of the Forkot members.
In separate protest earlier in the day, at least a hundred students from the radical group People and Student Action Forum for Democracy (Famred) held a protest in front of Pertamina Central Hospital (RSPP) in Jl. Kyai Madja, South Jakarta where Ginandjar Kartasamita a suspect in corruption case is undergoing medical treatment.
Through a joint protest with dozens of other student groups named Entire Indonesia Forum (FIS) which arrived earlier at the hospital, they urged Ginandjar to give up and comply with the AGO order to detain him.
During their protests, they spread and then burned the banner depicting a photo of Ginandjar and Indonesias most feared jail compound of Nusakambangan, where the other ex-state official and Soehartos chum Mohamad Bob Hasan has recently been sent. Bob Hasan was sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty in a corruption case for misusing the reforestation fund.
High tension loomed as the joint student protesters screamed at Ginandjars supporters when the students tried to break through the hospitals gate. The police who oversaw the demonstration did not take any steps to cool down the parties. They were just overseeing the situation from where they stood.
Ginandjars supporters come from West Java. They claimed that they are there in support and to express their concern over Ginandjars arrest which they said is tainted with a political agenda and law discrimination. Ginandjar is originally from Tasikmalaya, West Java.