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Strikers attack police

Source
The Australian - June 9, 1998

As many as 10,000 striking workers scuffled with, and threw rocks at, anti-riot police when they staged a 10km march through the streets of Indonesia's second city, Surabaya, yesterday.

Police and witnesses said violence broke out when a line of police blocked the path of the marchers as they approached East Java's provincial parliament building.

At least five police and three protesters were hospitalised. Some were bleeding after being beaten with sticks or hit with rocks.

Police later let the crowd pass and stage a noisy rally outside the legislature in Surabaya, about 650km east of Jakarta.

The protest was the biggest since Indonesia's new President B.J. Habibie last week relaxed tight restrictions on labour unions and signed an International Labor Organisation convention on respect for workers' rights.

The workers, employees of a household appliance manufacturer, went on strike last Tuesday demanding higher salaries and better conditions as the effects of Indonesia's worst economic crisis in 30 years began to bite.

In Jakarta, students staged demonstrations to demand the dissolution of the ruling Golkar party and reforms to the other two authorised parties.

Dozens of Muslim students protested at the Ministry of Home Affairs to step up pressure on Golkar, Mr Suharto's main political vehicle for 32 years.

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