Jakarta – At least five people were injured early Tuesday as Indonesian riot police beat student protestors who were demanding that President B.J. Habibie step down and hand over power to a transitional authority. The riot police, using tear gas, chased the 250 protestors out of the parliament compound, hours after they had arrived there for an overnight vigil.
Protestors from the Forum Kota, which groups students from greater Jakarta universities, had planned to camp inside the complex and expected more students to relieve them Tuesday, an AFP reporter said.
Some 100 anti-riot personnel used rattan sticks on the students who had gathered some 15 metres (yards) inside the sprawling compound of the national parliament, and pushed them with their shields, an AFP reporter said. A tear gas cannister was thrown into the crowd of protestors sparking panic.
Five students were injured as they were pushed back, some with bleeding leg and hand wounds as they tripped on the main entrance's steel gate that had fallen down. The five were rushed by ambulance to the private Atmajaya university hospital, their friends said. Three of the protestors fell and were carried away by fellow students across the empty three-lane road in front of the parliament that had been blocked by the security since noon Monday. The students fought back, pelting the police with anything they could get hold of, including stones and empty plastic bottles.
Police and military troops armed with automatic weapons and tear gas, who outnumbered the students, had earlier settled down, apparently for the night, within yards (metres) of the protestors but between them and the parliament building. "I don't know, it seems like we and the students are just trying to see who can outlast the other here," Lieutenant Colonel Said Aquil from Jakarta police said.
Some 1,000 of the Forum Kota students were locked in an hours-long battle of wills with the security forces composed of hundreds of police and armed soldiers around the entrance to the parliament. It was the most determined show of force by students in Jakarta since thousands from the same group staged a sit-in at parliament which helped pressure president Suharto to resign on May 21.
After dusk Monday, the students had managed to advance some 15 meters (about 160 feet) into the compound after pushing the long, low sliding steel gate which barred the entrance until it crashed to the ground. "Reject Habibie and his government," said one poster amid the red and white national flags waved by the protestors. Another read "Immediately Form a People's Committee of Indonesia."
At one point in the afternoon the AFP reporter saw the soldiers at the back of the police layer loading their weapons. Aqil said the soldiers were only equipped with blanks.
Several busloads of students had Monday relieved their colleagues as the standoff remained deadlocked, and the soldiers and the police also saw some rotation and fresh arrivals.
The head of the Jakarta Police, Major General Nugroho Jayusman, made a brief appearance at the site to check security arrangements but he did not meet with the students.
Several large student banners also demanded "Lower the prices" with protestors also yelling for cuts in the prices of essential goods. One student, clad in a black robe with the words "Hungry, Hungry" in bright green letters, moved among protestors shouting: "The people are hungry."
"Babies need milk, not parties," another large poster said referring to the soaring price of infant formula and the number of political parties that have sprung up since Habibie came to power. The price of milk and other essentials including rice, have shot up to unheard of heights since the financial crisis hit the country last year, while wages have remained fixed and thousands are laid off every week.
[On September 8, Reuters reported that at least two of the students were stabbed with bayonets and five taken to hospital after inhaling tear gas - James Balowski.]