INDONESIA: VIOLENT PROTESTS AT ECONOMIC CRISIS

(14 Feb 1998) Indonesian/Nat

Indonesia has suffered its worst rioting since the Asian economic crisis began, with thousands taking to the streets in violent protests.

At least one person is thought to have been killed in the troubles which hit smaller towns outside the capital Jakarta.

Chinese traders were the main targets of the rioters who are angry about job losses and spiralling inflation after the virtual collapse of the nation's currency.

Police are now reported to have banned mass rallies in the run-up to the March elections.

In the most violent day of protest since the economic crisis hit, thousands rampaged in towns east of the capital Jakarta on Friday.

They vented their anger at Chinese traders who they blame for soaring prices and mass unemployment.

Thousands rioted in the towns of Sukamandi, Ciasem, Gebang, Pamanukan, Jatiwangi, Tanjung and Bulukamba - all on the main island of Java.

One man was reportedly killed when more than three-thousand people ran wild in the biggest riot, which took place in Losari.

Security forces have been on alert in the world's fourth populous nation since the currency, the rupiah, collapsed last July, resulting in the worst slump in three decades.

Millions of jobs have been lost and surging inflation has also hit the poor hard.

After the latest wave of violence, truckloads of police and troops armed with shields and sticks were brought in to restore calm.

Ethnic Chinese, who are mainly Christian or Buddhist, make up only about four percent of Indonesia's population of 202 (m) million, which is about 90 percent Muslim.

Some of them are among the richest people in Indonesia.

But most live more ordinary lives and those who operate stores in towns and cities complain that they're being made scapegoats for the economic mess.

SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa Indonesia)
"I was hiding with my two kids in my housemate's toilet. I was just asking to be secure."
SUPER CAPTION: Eeng Nori, shopkeeper

Angry mobs torched or damaged hundreds of houses, cars and shops, including Eeng Nori's - she and her children managed to escape.

SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa, Indonesian)
"Since the morning at ten I close the shops and I only went out at four o'clock. But the mob took away all the things in the shops."
SUPER CAPTION: Eeng Nori, shopkeeper

Three Chinese churches in two areas were raided - their furniture burned.

Looting was widespread.

Fearful residents painted the word "Muslim" on their doors to keep rioters from attacking their homes.

Hundreds were detained as scores of scared Chinese families sheltered in police stations or fled to other towns.

Sweeping economic reforms and austerity measures under a 40 (b) billion U-S dollars I-M-F bailout agreed in January have added to, not eased, tensions.

SOUNDBITE: (Bahasa, Indonesian)
"This happened because there is no limit to this raising of the prices and most of the economic activities are in the hands of the Chinese."
SUPER CAPTION: Muslim witness

Friday's strife broke out a day after President Suharto ordered a crackdown on activists he accuses of trying to destabilise the state ahead of the presidential election in March.

Suharto, who has governed for 32 years, is expected to win a seventh five-year term when a one-thousand-member electoral college-like assembly votes.

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