Police Detain 140 In Price Protests

Indonesian police detained about 140 protesters yesterday after a demonstration in Jakarta over rising prices of food and other commodities, police said.

"They were detained because they were disturbing the traffic," Jakarta police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Aritonang said. Witnesses said the protest began at the Attorney-General's department as a demonstration against price rises. They began marching after being dispersed by police from that location. "They were protesting against rising prices and chanting for the prices to be lowered," one witness said.

The protesters, many wearing red and white head bands in the national colours, also carried banners criticising the private wealth of public officials.

 

Aritonang said the protest was stopped when it became a public nuisance.

The demonstration set off wild rumours of rioting in various areas in the already jittery capital, sending the stock market down 5.81 percent in late trade. But Aritonang said the capital was otherwise quiet. "There no other incidents," he said.

The protesters were detained by a combined force of riot police and army troops at a major intersection in south Jakarta, the witnesses said. They said the protesters were rounded up in an orderly manner before being led on to trucks in lines with each person placing their hands on the shoulders of the person in front. Witnesess said the banners and posters were collected and torn up by troops at the scene. The protesters had regrouped after being peacefully dispersed from the Attorney-General's department and marched towards the Manpower Department's head office on a major thoroughfare towards the city centre, witnesses said.

The demonstrators, who at one stage numbered about 500, travelled about three km before they were stopped by police at an overpass intersection. Many ran from the scene to avoid detention. An extended drought last year and a dramatic depreciation in the rupiah currency have pushed up prices of several key commodities, triggering protests on a number of Indonesian islands.

The official Antara news agency reported that hundreds of people, mostly students, rallied on Wednesday in and around Palu, the provincial capital of Central Sulawesi, in a similar protest against rising prices. Shouting "Lower the prices of the nine basic commodities" and carrying some banners, they went to the local parliament and governor's office where they talked to legislators.

The official nine basic commodities are rice, sugar, detergent, cooking oil, kerosene, clothing, unbleached textiles, salt and salted fish. While most of the town's shops were shut, Antara said there had been no damage and police reported the situation was safe and under control.

A rise in the price of cooking oil caused a brief disturbance in the Central Java town of Bumiayu on Tuesday when Indonesian youths threw stones at local shops. "It was only a little disturbance which could be easily controlled," a soldier on duty in Bumiayu, about 300 km southeast of Jakarta, said on Wednesday.

Residents said there was slight damage to the exterior of some shops which were stoned but businesses had reopened on Wednesday.