Indonesia Braces For Student Riots Police Presence Stepped Up Amid Anti-Government Fervor

Riot police set up positions outside university campuses Thursday and police aircraft hovered overhead as thousands of students held anti-government protests in seven cities.

Armed with automatic rifles and tear gas, about 200 police stationed themselves at the entrance to Jakarta’s University of Indonesia as the same number of students rallied against the government’s handling of Indonesia’s economic crisis.

A police helicopter, airplane and ultralight aircraft kept watch from above.

The campus protests have been tolerated by police, despite a ban on rallies while a 1,000 member assembly meets to re-elect President Suharto to a seventh five-year term.

The protests pose little threat to Suharto, who has resisted calls for political reform. Suharto, who came to power 32 years ago, is Asia’s longest-serving leader.

A delegation of students presented a list of demands to members of the assembly.

In Bandung, on the main island of Java, hundreds of police blocked dozens of students from staging a street march at the private Pasundan University.

Demonstrations were also staged in Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Semarang, also on Java, as well as Ujungpandang on Sulawesi and Denpasar on Bali.

Thursday’s protests followed rallies against the government on Wednesday by thousands of students at several campuses around the country.

In Yogyakarta on Thursday, more than 2,000 students and professors marched within the campus of the state-run Gajah Mada University.

This week’s peaceful protests have been among the largest shows of discontent since the Indonesian currency, the rupiah, plunged in value last year, pushing up prices and unemployment in this country of 202 million. Five people have been killed in riots over rising food costs.

The rupiah slid 11 percent against the dollar Thursday, partly because traders believe Indonesia has no immediate plans to implement a controversial proposal to stabilize the currency.

Dealers said the government is unlikely to push ahead soon with a currency board because international opposition is mounting. A board would peg the rupiah to the dollar at a fixed exchange rate.