Agencies in Jakarta – Indonesian police fired tear-gas yesterday to disperse militant student protesters trying to reach the home of former president Suharto to demand he be taken to court.

The first volleys were fired after nightfall as the 1,000 or so students, frustrated at their inability to get closer to Mr Suharto's home, began to pelt the security personnel with stones and molotov cocktails. The rally was to mark the second anniversary of the shooting of four students, which fuelled the riots which toppled the veteran ruler two years ago.

After an almost three-hour stand-off during which both camps stayed in their own lines, the police charged into the crowd with batons. They then chased the students into side streets in the plush central Jakarta residential area, lobbing tear-gas canisters at them. Eleven students were seen being beaten up and arrested by plain-clothes policemen, and 10 policemen and one journalist were injured in the melee.

Police pushed the students back about 400m north to a market area, where the protesters began to burn rubbish and tyres and damaged a police post there, the reporter said. It was not immediately known whether Mr Suharto was inside his house at the time.

The students, from student bodies city-wide, had earlier marched from the Attorney-General's Office after Friday prayers and headed towards Mr Suharto's home, where they staged a joint rally near Jalan Cendana in the upmarket Menteng residential area where Mr Suharto lives, but they were held off about 200m from Mr Suharto's home by about 400 police in full riot gear posted on every junction leading to the house.

The students had earlier stopped outside the Atma Jaya Catholic University, near parliament, carrying the flags of their respective universities and anti-Suharto posters, including one that recommended five ways of punishing the former president, including hanging and castration. A giant white banner which read "Suharto must be hanged by the people" was held aloft as they marched down Sudirman Avenue.

This year's turnout was significantly smaller than last year's anniversary rally, which brought thousands of students to the streets. "This is because people don't believe that demonstration is the best way to resolve problems. Now there are so many other channels for people to air their demands, like going to Parliament," said a former student activist. "In the past, there were no channels to voice the people's aspirations."

Also yesterday, a ceremony was held to unveil a new memorial at Trisakti University honouring the four students who died there two years ago. Funded by teachers, students and relatives of the victims, the memorial includes four 10-metre-high steel pillars.

Each pillar contains a large bullet hole near the top. The memorial was installed in a parking lot in front of Trisakti University, where the students were shot.

Several hundred students and a few relatives of the victims placed four large wreaths at the base of the monument. "We really feel the loss of our four colleagues ... we will continue the struggle for them and the fight for democratic reforms," said Raja Tobing, president of the student union at Trisakti.