David Jenkins, Jakarta – Indonesia seems poised on the brink of another major crisis – one that is already triggering fears of renewed bloodletting.

At 1.30am yesterday, 1,000 armed riot police and soldiers lined up outside the Parliament building in Jakarta in ranks 10 deep, ready for a confrontation with radical student activists from an umbrella grouping calling itself Forum Kota.

Earlier in the day, the students, who are bent on bringing down the 110-day-old Government of President B.J. Habibie, had overturned the steel gates of the nation's Parliament and taken up positions just inside the grounds. They were now hurling rocks, bottles and abuse at those who sought to dislodge them as street vendors moved between the two groups, selling soft drinks and cigarettes.

In the event, the students were driven off by the riot police and Marines, who outnumbered them three to one. But Forum Kota says this is just the beginning and that bigger and more disruptive demonstrations will follow. "We are not going to stop until change takes place," Eli Dahlan, a student activist, said yesterday. In Surabaya, the nation's second-largest city, students plan to hold demonstrations when Dr Habibie visits today.

The new burst of student activism is a matter of grave concern to the Habibie Government, which is struggling to cope with the nation's worst economic crisis in more than 30 years. "This is a very nasty development," Lieutenant-General Zen Maulani, Dr Habibie's chief of staff, told the Herald yesterday.

"It's very sad. I don't know [exactly what will happen]. But there will be fighting and bloodshed, not between the anti-Habibie students and the troops but between the anti-Habibie and the pro-Habibie activists." Asked if the Government could stop pro-Habibie students from going to the Parliament, General Maulani said: "We can't and we must not stop them because the demand [of Forum Kota] is for President Habibie to stand down.

"And Forum Kota plans to occupy Parliament without a time limit. The Parliament is one of the symbols of our national sovereignty. So the Muslim students could not accept that these vandals represent the whole of the Indonesian people."

Forum Kota, which has played an increasingly disruptive role since early this year, draws its support not from students at Indonesia's big and prestigious government-run universities, who played a key role in the May 21 downfall of former President Soeharto, but from smaller private-run institutions.

According to General Maulani, Forum Kota mobilised scores of newly enrolled university students for the demonstrations outside the Parliament. "They told them this is one part of their political education," he said.

The Habibie Government argues that Forum Kota enjoys the clandestine backing of some prominent retired army officers in the so-called Barisan Nasional, or National Front, which is equally keen to bring Habibie down. "I see a coalition of convenience between the socialists, the leftists, the nationalists and the former rightist generals who, 30 years ago, crushed the fathers of these young people," General Maulani said. "So it is not, repeat not, a coalition of ideologues or a coalition of interests. It is only a coalition of convenience."

Although some analysts would argue that the Habibie Government is just as ready as its predecessor to apply sometimes inappropriate labels to its opponents, many Indonesians are prepared to believe that retired army officers are supporting Forum Kota. The man whose name is most frequently mentioned in this context is Lieutenant-General Kemal Idris, chairman of the Barisan Nasional.

According to Goenawan Mohamad, an editor and activist, the Barisan Nasional hopes to topple Habibie and forge a coalition between opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and one or other of two retired generals, Edi Sudradjat or Try Sutrisno. "It seems Habibie is getting more complacent and maybe this sort of demo is useful as a gadfly," Goenawan said. "But the danger is that this scheme will trigger more unrest."