Bayonet attack on Jakarta students

ANTI-GOVERNMENT protesters were bayoneted early yesterday during a battle withIndonesian troops at the national parliament.

A military spokesman denied that soldiers or riot police were responsible for the bayonet attacks, but hospitals in Jakarta confirmed that two students had had emergency surgery after several hundred wereevicted from the grounds of the parliament building, which they had occupied on Monday night.

It was the latest outbreak of violence in the world's fourth-biggest country, whose economy appears to be collapsing despite the support of the International Monetary Fund.

The protesters demanded the departure of the president, B J Habibie, for his failure to control rising food prices and his reluctance to sweep awaythe authoritarian apparatus of his predecessor, President Suharto. He resigned in May after a week-long occupation of the parliament buildings.

The students want Mr Suharto tried for allegedly embezzling billions of dollars of state funds, a charge he denied in a rare TV interview this week.

On Monday afternoon, more than a thousand students had marched on the parliament buildings and broken down the gates to the compound. About 300 remained until the early hours, chanting slogans, even after troops and riot police ordered them to disperse. The injuries appear to have been inflicted at about 1.30am when the security forces fired tear gas on to the crowd and drove them out of the grounds.

Mr Habibie warned of more turmoil unless the economic problems were quickly solved. "Social unrest will prevail," he said. "Crime will rise ... the chance of human rights abuses taking place will surely be bigger."