Violence in the Indonesian capital which left at least five students dead and scores injured after security forces opened fire on a peaceful protest will only lead to increased tension and unrest, analysts said yesterday.
"It is more than likely that further violence will develop as tension escalates," said Mr Albert Hasibuan, a member of Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights.
Security forces opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in west Jakarta by some 5,000 students from Trisakti University and supporters yesterday, leaving five dead.
The violence capped weeks of clashes between student protesters and security forces in towns across the country that have also left one passer-by and an intelligence officer dead and hundreds injured.
The mass student protest movement sprang up across the nation in mid-February ahead of a meeting of the country's top constitutional body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), a largely hand-picked body that re-elected President Suharto (76) to a seventh five-year term in March.
Initial calls for an attack on rising prices sparked by the worst economic crisis in decades have broadened into demands for quick political and economic reform and an end to Mr Suharto's rule.
The president, currently visiting Egypt, made a plea for stability on his departure for Cairo on Saturday and reiterated his position that reform talks could start immediately, but the reforms could not be implemented until the MPR next meets in 2003.
The jailed leader of the Indonesian Labour Welfare Union, Mucthar Pakapahan, and the union secretary-general said in a joint statement yesterday that Indonesia needed reform of corrupt practices, collusion, monopolies and nepotism before the rescue package put together by the IMF was handed out.
Indonesia turned to the IMF last October. The collapse of the rupiah currency from around 2,400 to the dollar last July to its current level of 9,250 has sent prices and unemployment soaring.
In the East Java capital of Surabaya, around 500 students from eight separate campuses rallied at the Putera Bangsa University before marching back to their respective campuses.
They called for a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly to withdraw Mr Suharto's mandate as president.
Elsewhere in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, around 400 hundred students from another four campuses rallied at the Wijaya Kusuma University with similar demands.
In Jakarta, one of the parliament's four deputy speakers, Lieut-Gen Sywarn Hamid, denied parliament had ignored the people's aspirations for reform during the difficult economic times.
He defended a decision to detain hundreds of students last Friday when they marched on the parliament building. They were later released unharmed.
Reports of kidnappings and torture continued to surface, with a human rights activist who was kidnapped and then released after two months telling a Jakarta news conference he was tortured during his detention.
Describing one three-hour torture session, Mr Desmond Mahesa said: "During that time, I was kicked and beaten on my head, back, hands and leg. I was also subjected to electric shocks."