Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students Wednesday abandoned a sit-in at parliament demanding the resignation of President Abdurrahman Wahid, amid rumours his supporters were descending on the complex.
As police squads looked on, some 2,500 students marched out of the back entrance of the sprawling complex after two nights camping in the grounds.
The evacuation of parliament eased the pressure on the country's battered markets, with the Jakarta stock exchange index closing up 0.8 percent and the rupiah endeing the trading day in the 10,000 range to the dollar.
The protestors, from universities in Sumatra and Java, marched towards the Salemba campus of the state University of Indonesia (UI) some 7.5 kilometres northeast to "consolidate."
But they stopped on their way outside the official residence of Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and urged her – even though she was not at home at the time – to move against Wahid.
Massing in front of the residence, tightly guarded by some 500 police and vice presidential guards, the students held a free speech forum on the main avenue in front of the house.
"If Megawati and the PDIP do not have the courage to precipitate the special [national assembly impeachment] session, it means that they are just like Golkar," said Januar, a UI student through a loudspeaker in front of the residence.
Golkar is the political party of former president Suharto, and ensured he stayed in power for 32 years, until he was toppled in May 1998 amid mass student protests.
Megawati's Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle (PDIP) won the country's first free elections in 1999 and holds the largest block of seats in parliament. "We are asking for a commitment from Megawati," Januar said.
Earlier Wednesday, the leader of the UI student executive board Taufik Riyadi said the students were pulling out of parliament to prepare their next strategy.
Board executive Idrus told AFP the students were asking Megawati for help because "the students no longer have the patience" to wait for parliament to move against Wahid.
The country's first democratically elected president, Wahid has turned a deaf ear to the mounting calls to resign, saying he will not quit.
Riyadi said the students wanted to prevent clashes with pro-Wahid supporters. "We heard that supporters of Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname] will come, so it will be better that we return to Salemba because we don't want a conflict."
Later in the day, a pro-Wahid crowd of some 500 marched to a central city roundabout, where they were joined briefly by some 800 anti-Golkar protestors from three student organizations. But they did not try to confront the anti-Wahid students, or replace them in the parliament complex, and instead marched back to the presidential palace.
Imron, the "field commander" for Wahid supporters from East Java, said earlier that his group had only wanted "to talk to our friends who oppose Gus Dur, and ask them to leave the parliament grounds."
The anti-Wahid students began their sit-in on Monday to demand that he step down or that the country's highest body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), hold a special session to impeach him.
But MPR leader Amien Rais said Tuesday assembly leaders had dropped a plan for an early session as it had no "constitutional basis."
Rais said MPs were now resigned to following the constitutional process and would wait for the lower house (DPR) to call for the special session.
On February 1, the DPR first censured Wahid for alleged involvement in two financial scandals, giving him three months to respond.
The lower house could issue a second censure if it deems Wahid's reply to the first one is unsatisfactory. The president would then have a further month to reply.
Should it believe the second reply to fall short, the DPR could then call for a special MPR session which would have the power to depose Wahid.
About 300 students and the same number of other protestors including farmers and workers stayed behind at parliament.