Detik.com
- October 20, 2009
Muchus Budi
R., Solo – A demonstration by students in the Central Java city of Solo on
October 20 against the inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was
broken up by police before it could even start.
Around 30
students calling themselves the Greater Solo Student Movement (GMS), which is
comprised of Student Executive Councils from various Solo universities, the
Indonesian Association of Catholic Students and the Indonesian Christian
Students Movement, arrived at the Gladag traffic circle at around 10.30am. They
were immediately intercepted by police and taken away to the Surakarta (Solo)
Municipal Police Headquarters.
Although
police asserted that the students had held the action without providing the
police with prior notification, the students said that they had already
informed the police verbally. They added that they were arrested before they
had even done anything. Police also secured a number of posters brought by
demonstrators condemning Yudhoyono and Boediono as being neoliberal lackeys.
A short time
later, scores of Islamic Students Association (HMI) held an action at the same
location, but were not stopped by police on the grounds that they had already
provided notification. (mbr/djo)
[Abridged
translation by James Balowski.]
