Troops Keep Uneasy Peace at Riot Sites in Indonesia

Truckloads of Indonesian troops maintained an uneasy peace in Medan on Thursday after three days of rioting, but fears of further violence sent tremors through markets across Asia and hit the beleaguered rupiah, the Indonesian currency.

Armed forces chief Gen. Wiranto urged students to end their protests against the 32-year rule of President Suharto, saying that their calls for reform were now part of the national agenda and that the army backed gradual political and economic reform.

“At the present moment, various parties such as the armed forces, students, scholars and political organizations have essentially agreed on reforms,” he told a news conference Thursday.

But students demanding immediate reform continued to demonstrate, and rubber bullets and tear gas were fired during a protest by up to 15,000 people outside the Guna Dharma university in south Jakarta.

In Medan, in northern Sumatra, convoys of soldiers backed by armored cars patrolled the city’s riot-scarred areas, and troops with automatic rifles and riot shields stood beside gutted shops and the charred shells of burned-out vehicles.

Only sporadic looting was reported in the city, after near-anarchy earlier this week, when riots exploded following a sharp increase in fuel prices.

Wiranto told the news conference that no one had been killed during the Medan riots, contradicting reports by local journalists of at least six deaths. The Sumatran police chief spoke of at least one death.

Sources in the Chinese community, which bore the brunt of the violence in the Muslim-majority city, said 10 people died.

Elsewhere, transport workers in several cities were reported to be on strike following Monday’s fuel price increases. Thousands of people were stranded by strikes provoked by passengers refusing to pay higher transportation fares.

In East Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, hundreds of students from the Mulawarman University clashed with security personnel when they tried to take their protests to the streets, the official Antara news agency said.

Peaceful student demonstrations were also reported in Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Bali.

The calmer situation in Medan failed to help Indonesia’s battered rupiah, which dropped to its lowest since mid-March on fears of further instability. The central bank was forced to hike key interest rates to bolster the currency.

The rupiah’s value dropped to 9,620 to the dollar, down from its Wednesday closing of 9,050 to the dollar.

Markets elsewhere in the region were also spooked by fears of increased violence in Indonesia, which straddles international sea and air routes. Stock markets in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan fell on concerns about the unrest.