JAKARTA, May 12: At least four people were killed today when Indonesian police opened fire on thousands of protesters, according to students waiting outside a hospital emergency ward. More wounded were being brought to the hospital as emergency services struggled to treat the injured. The hospital is close to the private Trisakti University from where thousands of students had marched earlier in the day in a bid to reach the House of Representatives.Meanwhile, Indonesian student activists have vowed to keep up their fight for comprehensive reforms.
"What we are doing is not something that was only meant to last a couple of weeks, it is a bigger fight and for a greater cause than temporary action," Elfansuri, a student activist from the state Indonesia University's socio-political science faculty says.
But he said the students' action should remain peaceful and non-violent. Students and alumni from the university were the first to hold a peaceful protest at their campus in downtown Jakarta in end ofFebruary. They called for comprehensive reforms to allow the country to overcome swiftly Its current economic crisis.
"The fall of victims is deplorable but they are only making the student movements more solid," said another student activist, Marianus Kila, from the Atma Jaya Catholic University here. Students have begun to call for an extraordinary session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest legislative body which elects a President and a Vice-President every five years.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
