INDONESIA: JAKARTA: BUSINESS CENTRE CLOSED

Natural Sound

For the second day in a row, an anti-government protest closed Jakarta's business district on Saturday in a standoff with hundreds of police and soldiers.

Riot police were called in to tackle stone-throwing students.

Elsewhere in the city a peaceful rally was held in support of presidential candidate
Megawati Sukarnoputri.

The latest clashes between civilians and police were sparked when about 100 students marched to Atmajaya University.

Some of them threw stones at several police stationed there.

Soon, about 300 heavily armed police and soldiers arrived, cordoned off the whole area and closed the street.

As the student ranks swelled to about 150, they shouted slogans criticising Indonesian forces for attacking another protest there on Friday and a second one in front of Parliament on Thursday night.

The students also shouted slogans demanding President B.J. Habibie's name be withdrawn from the candidates vying for election as Indonesia's head of state in a vote by its assembly on Wednesday.

The standoff occurred about two kilometres (1.5 miles) from parliament, where earlier in the day legislators debated whether they should remove Habibie's nomination for the presidency because of widespread criticism about crises during his 16 months in office.
In another part of Jakarta, about 300 supporters of presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri demonstrated peacefully.

Megawati is the daughter of Sukarno, the country's first president.


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