Indonesia was bracing itself yesterday for another week of protests clamouring for President Suharto to resign. The archipelago of 200 million people last week witnessed some of the worst violence, and the loss of the first lives, since the start of the student protests in February.
According to an unofficial toll, eight people have died in student protests in Java and in four days of deadly rioting in the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan.
Crippling fuel and electricity price rises of up to 71 per cent proved the last straw for people in Medan, already burdened by the soaring cost of staple goods as the rupiah plunged against the dollar.
Bands of looters roamed for four days until extra security forces clamped a tense calm on the city. By then the looting had spilled out into the surrounding areas.
Gen Suharto left for a week-long visit to Egypt on Saturday morning, saying electoral reforms would be in place in time for the next elections in 2002.
Even the all-powerful military said it too had heard the students' message and was ready to take part in the reform process, urging the protests to stop.
