- Title: INDONESIA: TENSIONS RISE IN JAKARTA AFTER TROOPS TRY AND BLOCK OPPOSITION PROTEST
- Date: 18th June 1996
- Summary: JAKARTA, INDONESIA (JUNE 18-19, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (JUNE 18, 1996) 1. LV/PAN: PDI (INDONESIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY) HEADQUARTERS SURROUNDED WITH PROTEST BANNERS. 0.10 2. CU: BANNERS SAYING, "MEGA, YES... CONGRESS, NO" AND "MEGAWATI, SYMBOL OF THE PEOPLE'S POWER." 0.15 3. GV: STUDENT SUPPORTERS OF MEGAWATI SUKARNOPUTRI ARRIVING AT
- Embargoed: 3rd July 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JAKARTA, INDONESIA
- City:
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA1WA6W3MVWAABMHMSZ07D1XA7Y
- Story Text: INTRO: Clashes have broken out in Jakarta after troops tried to block a protest by members of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party, in support of their leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Demonstrators hurled stones and plastic bottles at soldiers blocking their march from the PDI headquarters. A number of people suffered minor injuries, including bloody head wounds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- About 5,000 demonstrators had set out from the party headquarters in support of the PDI president Megawati Sukarnoputri, who faces a leadership challenge by party dissidents at a congress they opened on Thursday (June 20) in the North Sumatran city of Medan.
Megawati, daughter of Indonesia's late founding president Sukarno, has branded the government-backed congress as illegal. She was elected in 1993 to a five-year term.
The soldiers charged into the crowd with batons and ratan sticks. Eyewitnesses said officers ordered some of the soldiers back from the demonstrators.
On Wednesday (June 19) more than 3,000 PDI supporters marched through Jakarta to protest against a meeting of party dissidents who want to oust Megawati.
Up to 100 policemen, some in riot gear, kept watch on the marchers who brought lunch-hour traffic to a near halt as they carried pictures and banners denouncing Thursday's congress.
Banners saying "Fail the Congress" and "Long Live Megawati" were paraded down streets by marchers dressed in red, the party colour, as a police helicopter circled overhead.
A smaller group of PDI supporters marched to the Interior Ministry on Tuesday (June 18) in a show of support for Megawati.
The three-day PDI rebels congress in Medan has obtained government backing and is expected to be attended by Interior Minister Yogie Suardi Memet and armed forces commander Feisal Tanjung.
Analysts said the government wanted to oust the popular Megawati by siding with the dissidents because it feared she would run for president in 1998 after general elections in 1997.
Suharto, who came to power in the mid-1960s, has been elected unopposed to six five-year terms in office. He is widely expected to seek re-election in March 1998.
Diplomats say Suharto wants Golkar to make a strong showing in next year's elections after gaining 68 percent of the vote in 1992 from 73 percent in 1987.
The PDI took 15 percent in 1992 while the Moslem-oriented United Development Party (PPP) 17 percent.
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