Jakarta – About one hundred street musicians rallied in front of East Java Police headquarters in Surabaya on Monday to protest the rounding up of their fellow street musicians in nationwide anti-thug sweeps.

The buskers, who said they were members of the East Java branch of the Indonesian Buskers Union, demanded the police stop criminalizing them.

"Buskers are not thugs. We're making an honest living on the street. The police should stop these arrests," said Slamet Kusairi, the rally coordinator, as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

The National Police had vowed to get rid of petty criminals by conducting a national operation amid rising concern about the rise in street crime. (dre)