Indonesia Suspends Law Boosting Army Powers

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A second day of rioting here and news that the violence had claimed four lives prompted Indonesia’s government late Friday to suspend a new law giving the military added powers to quell opposition and limit civil rights.

The protests continued into the early hours today despite the announcement, but by dawn the crowds had broken up and the city was largely peaceful.

Students--who feared that the controversial security law passed Thursday would allow Indonesia’s powerful armed forces to stage a “creeping coup” behind a thin legal veneer--were joined Friday in Jakarta, the capital, by hundreds of young men on motorcycles, who taunted police, burned cars and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails.

“We’re against the security act,” said computer science student Esa Ansory, 19. “It oppresses our freedom of speech and expression.”

One youth was shot to death Friday morning, but it was unclear who fired the bullet. Two other protesters and a police officer died of injuries sustained during Thursday’s violence.

The surprise reversal by the government of President B.J. Habibie was a de facto admission that its new law was ill-timed and socially divisive. The bill was pushed through just days before a new, democratically elected parliament was scheduled to convene.

“The government made a decision that endorsement of the new security bill is delayed because we are listening to the people,” said military spokesman Maj. Gen. Sudrajat.

But some remained skeptical that the reversal will satisfy the students. “I can’t imagine they’re going to back off on it,” said a Western diplomat here, who after meeting with protest organizers predicted several more days of clashes.

The new “Prevention of Danger Law” would give the president authority to declare a state of emergency and allow the military to ban protests, ignore some human rights rules and take over telecommunications and mail services.

Government officials claimed Friday that the new bill was in fact more democratic than the 1959 version it was designed to replace. The bill contains no limits on press freedoms, officials said, and emergency powers must be approved by local and national legislatures, not imposed by fiat.

“If this law is not passed now, the government can simply declare martial law,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, state secretary for foreign affairs.

That said, government officials concede that years of heavy-handed military tactics, the army’s recent failure to control violence in the territory of East Timor and a tradition of secrecy have left many Indonesians skeptical of the military’s motives.

Analysts add that many of Indonesia’s recent political problems reflect growing democratic pressures butting up against leaders who still use undemocratic tactics and rigid policies forged during three decades of strong-arm rule under then-President Suharto. The former leader was driven from power in May 1998 by weeks of student-led demonstrations.

The recent riots are taking a toll on an economy that has been slow to recover from the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997.

“I support their right to strike, but I’d like to get to work,” said one commuter, who spent three hours trying to get to his job Friday morning. “Maybe they could at least leave half of the road open.”

Elsewhere, shopkeepers, hotel operators and office building staff spent Friday afternoon boarding up windows, erecting barbed wire barriers and posting extra guards.

“I’m shutting down because of all the conflict,” said Joko Ibram, owner of a small clothing shop in central Jakarta. “I would have made at least $350 if I’d been able to stay open this afternoon.”