Ahmad Fikri, Bandung – Police arrested two university and a high school student at a protest action commemorating the first 100 days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY) second administration on Thursday January 18.

The students were arrested in front of the Sate building complex in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung. "They were beaten and kicked", said action coordinator Prabu Ningrat from the Greater Bandung Student Consortium (KMBR) who witnessed the incident. The KMBR is made up of student groups from 18 private tertiary intuitions in Bandung.

The arrests took place after a scuffle between students and police at the East gate to the Sate building complex. After the two sides retreated, students began pelting the police guarding the gate with pieces of bamboo and rolled up banners.

All of a sudden a group of suspected plain-cloths police officers approached the group and scuffle broke out when they tried to arrest several protesters. The students, who were joined by a group of workers gathered at the West gate, then pursued the plain-cloths officers holding their colleagues. The chaotic situation only subsided after the three detained demonstrators were placed in an armored personal vehicle and driven away. Police said that they would be released after being questioned.

[Abridged translation by James Balowski.]