JAKARTA: There were small, peaceful protests outside the Indonesian parliament today, following more than a week of sometimes violent demonstrations, as the Muslim-majority country celebrated a holiday marking the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday.
Students gathered for a “picnic protest”, with poetry and book readings as they criticised politicians’ benefits and called for release of detained protesters and a withdrawal of military personnel from civil security duty.
“We have a picnic together, show our expression creatively, innovatively … we don’t just shout angrily, but we have a cool, creative approach to express our anger,” Vincent Thomas, a student leader from Padjadjaran University, said in a speech broadcast on Kompas TV.
Last week, protesters, including students, workers and rights groups, took to the streets of Jakarta to protest against housing allowances for members of parliament. Unrest spread across the country after a police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle taxi driver at one rally.
Jakarta police spokesman Ade Ary Syam Indradi said 1,371 personnel, including from the police and the military, were deployed across the capital today.
In Solo, central Java, more than 500km east of Jakarta, students handed out groceries and conducted free health screenings as part of their peaceful protest, Kompas reported. Yesterday, student groups met cabinet ministers to press their complaints over lawmakers’ perks and police tactics used against demonstrators.
Student representatives also met with some parliamentarians earlier in the week, but have so far not been successful in their demands for a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto. Rights groups say 10 people have died and more than 1,000 have been injured in clashes with security forces and other unrest.
Authorities have detained more than 3,000 people in a nationwide crackdown on the protests, the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said. -REUTERS
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