Indonesian Capital Nears Anarchy as Mobs Burn, Loot

Mobs of poor, young Indonesians rampaged unchecked through downtown streets here Thursday, looting, burning and pushing this capital of 10 million to the edge of anarchy.

They torched cars, banks and department stores, targeting businesses owned by ethnic Chinese and members of the ruling family. Plumes of smoke billowed over Jakarta from every direction. Streets emptied, and stores and offices closed as panicked residents fled home or checked into downtown hotels, some carrying their most precious business files in cardboard boxes.

Armored personnel carriers moved in formation down Sudirman Boulevard in the heart of the capital, but the soldiers did little to stop looters who smashed storefront windows and scurried through the streets lugging television sets, bags of rice, cartons of cigarettes and armfuls of clothing.

This morning a fire apparently set by looters raced through a mall in eastern Jakarta, trapping and killing as many as 100 people, witnesses told Associated Press.

There was no official confirmation of the death toll. At least two dozen people, including four soldiers, have been reported dead or missing since Tuesday, when six student protesters were shot to death by police. It is the worst violence that Jakarta has seen during President Suharto’s 32-year rule.

In response, the State Department this morning advised all Americans to leave the capital as well as Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya. Officials said 2,000 to 3,000 Americans are in Jakarta and about 11,000 to 12,000 more are in outlying areas.

France and Japan also issued travel advisories, with France warning its 2,300 nationals not to move about Jakarta except under “urgent circumstances.”

The size of the expatriate business community in the capital has dropped to about 30,000 from 50,000 in the past year as economic mismanagement has taken a huge toll on Indonesia. The new wave of violence sent more expatriates hurrying to buy plane tickets to Singapore and other havens.

The international airport remained open, but the road to it from Jakarta was blocked by burning vehicles.

Suharto cut short an official trip to Egypt and returned to Jakarta early today. He immediately met with Vice President B.J. Habibie and Gen. Wiranto, the respected Indonesian defense chief, and ordered his ministers to take action against the rioters and looters.

Before leaving Cairo, he said he would not use his military to stay in power and suggested that he would step aside if the people no longer trusted him. “I will become a sage and get closer to God,” he said cryptically.

“I don’t believe him a single iota,” said Amien Rais, a popular Muslim leader and Suharto critic. “I won’t believe it until he says it before the public in my country in a forceful statement.”

Some political analysts questioned whether events were not already beyond Suharto’s control. The rioting, sparked by last week’s price increases for fuel and electricity, has resulted in calls from a broad spectrum of the population for Suharto’s resignation.

University students have been at the forefront of the anti-Suharto, pro-democracy movement, holding campus demonstrations almost daily for three months. Some rallies have turned violent.

“We’re not afraid of the soldiers anymore,” said a 19-year-old business student. “The people, maybe even the soldiers, are on our side.”

But the students stayed on their campuses Thursday and, for the most part, did not join the rioters. The mobs that roamed Jakarta were composed mainly of young, unemployed men who had no political agenda but appeared united in their hatred of Suharto. They were, one Western diplomat said, the “loony fringe,” running wild in a society traditionally under tight military control.

Wiranto drew laughter from local journalists Thursday when he told a news conference that the military “has the situation in Jakarta under control.” He gave no hint that martial law or a curfew or would be imposed.

In Washington, the Clinton administration continued to call for restraint, for the first time urging the army as well as Suharto to begin informal talks with the opposition in hopes of ending the rioting.

The administration also announced that Adm. Joseph Prueher, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, had canceled a planned visit to Jakarta to confer with Indonesian military leaders there--partly because of the chaos.

Stanley Roth, assistant secretary of State for Asia, said Washington is not trying to dictate the terms of any talks between the government and opposition leaders in Indonesia.

“We don’t think there should be an American plan,” he told a Senate hearing Thursday, “but we do think that the government has to be talking to its citizens--not shooting students in the street.”

At the same time, U.S. officials said the situation in Jakarta still had not deteriorated to the point where Washington was considering trying to stop U.S. and international aid designed to help the country recover from its economic crisis.

It was far from clear why Indonesia’s military commanders had not acted more aggressively to quell the disturbances in the capital.

Some Western diplomats speculated that the commanders did not want to overreact because of the international condemnation that followed the deaths of the six students Tuesday. Others thought that their passivity might have reflected anti-Suharto sentiments: If the situation got bad enough, Suharto might have to step down.

One telling scene Thursday at the University of Indonesia’s Salemba campus: Police officers who retreated under a hail of rocks were replaced by marine commandos. The commandos chatted and shook hands with students; some thrust their fists into the air in an apparent sign of solidarity.

Clearly, the Suharto family understood that it was at risk. The first taxis to disappear from the streets Thursday were those of the Citra company, owned by Suharto’s daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, or Tutut. Car dealerships selling Timors--an enterprise of Suharto’s son Hutomo Mandala Putra, or Tommy--were among the first businesses wrecked. Heavy security blocked off Cendana Street, where Suharto and his children live.

By evening, Jakarta was a city under siege. Concertina wire had been strung around the perimeters of high-rise condo complexes. Fires burned, but no fire brigades answered the call.

Times staff writer Art Pine in Washington contributed to this report.

* INDONESIA EXODUS: U.S. firms are curtailing Indonesia operations amid growing anti-government violence. D1