Jakarta – City police chose a persuasive approach to deal with protests following clashes between police officers and university students last week, a police spokesperson said Tuesday. Reports from two universities in East and South Jakarta on Tuesday showed no major clashes between the two parties.
At East Jakarta's Indonesian Christian University (UKI), dozens of students blocked roads and burned tires, causing traffic congestion in the area.
"Their actions also caused hazards for road users; they threw stones at police officers," city police spokesman Sr. Comr. Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said on Tuesday.
"But we did not want a repeat of what happened before (at National University), so we tried using a different approach to manage the demonstrations – using persuasion. We approached the rector," he said.
A meeting was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon between Jakarta's university rectors, the city police and city administration to discuss student protests, he said.
UKI rector Bernard SM. Hutabarat went down to the street at 9.30 a.m., telling students to return to the campus immediately and threatening to close the campus gates if they continued the road blockade. But some 50 students continued their peaceful protest until 5.30 p.m.
Meanwhile, around 50 students from various institutions gathered at 3 p.m. in front of Moestopo Beragama University on Jl. Hang Lekir Raya in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. They burned tires, causing long traffic jams along the road heading toward Senayan.
First. Brig. Irfan Fajar said traffic had eased by around 5:30 p.m., after police extinguished the fire and helped the city sanitation agency remove the burned tires from the road. The demonstration continued until late into the night.
Separately, some 300 students staged a protest in front of South Jakarta police precinct and city police headquarters, demanding the release of 31 students who were arrested during a clash with police at National University in South Jakarta on Saturday morning.
M. Ridha Saleh, vice chairperson for internal affairs at the National Commission on Human Rights, said the commission would accommodate complaints from family members of the detained students.
"They came to our office this morning, accompanied by their lawyers. They demanded easier access to visit their children... and asked police to pay for their children's medical bills.(ind)