Martha Warta Silaban, Jakarta – Hundreds of students and elements from the social movements held a demonstration in front of the national police headquarters at 1pm on Tuesday May 4.

The demonstrators came from the Jakarta State Islamic University (UIN), the Association of Independent Indonesian Trade Unions, the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI), the Muhammadiyah Students Association, the National Mandate Party Youth Front, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), the People’s Democratic Party (PRD), the Poor People’s Youth Fighters and the United Opposition Front (BOB).

They were demanding that Indonesian police chief General Da’i Bachtiar resign, they rejected all forms of militarism and called for the perpetrators of the incident [in which police attacked students] at the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) [on May 1] in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to be tried by a human rights court.

The first group of demonstrators to arrive were from BOB followed by around 300 students from UIN. They sang songs with themes rejecting militarism and violence. As a result of the demonstration, traffic flow on Jalan Trunojoyo was restricted to one lane.

According to information gathered [by Tempo Interactive], demonstrations by other student groups are to follow. Although police had fortified the police headquarters’ main gates, at the time of going to press, no clash had occurred between police and demonstrators.

[Translated by James Balowski.]