At least 10 people were believed to have been killed in mob violence in Jakarta yesterday as near anarchy descended on the Indonesian capital in an outburst of fury at the shooting dead of six students on Tuesday.
Nine of the dead were members of the Chinese minority, mostly trapped when the attackers set fire to their homes and shops. The other was a man found dead following clashes between demonstrators and riot police outside west Jakarta's elite Trisakti University, where the students were killed.
After an afternoon of gunfire in the streets around the campus, several large fires were burning in the suburbs.
President Suharto (76) is cutting short a visit to Egypt to return to Indonesia today as the protests against his 32-year reign threaten to become a popular uprising against his family-dominated administration. The President appealed for restraint in a statement read out by the Vice-President, Mr Just Hobby.
However, students plan a major demonstration this morning at the University of Indonesia on the city outskirts, according to activists, and the city was braced for another day of violence. Army and riot police who stopped students from leaving their campus on Tuesday did not attempt to prevent students marching to the Muslim Tame Quasar cemetery for the funerals of two students killed on Tuesday.
Family members wailed as the bodies were taken from the coffins in white shrouds for burial. One cried, "How can we thank you [for coming]?" A voice cried out, "With a life, the life of Suharto." The lacquered wooden grave markers gave the students' names as Hey Hereunto (21) and Elang Mule (20).
"The spirit of your struggle, young heroes, we will carry on," proclaimed a banner on a nearby hillside. There were disturbances in several cities over the deaths of the students, the first to die in three months of demonstrations against President Suharto over corruption, rising prices and unemployment.
The mob violence against the Chinese, a frequent target in times of turmoil in this mostly Muslim country of 200 million people, appears to have been sparked by disturbances by angry students and local people outside Trisakti university. These spread to surrounding districts and eventually to the Chinese-owned shops.
Security forces had difficulty keeping control as mobs gathered and dispersed at junctions. Troops fired shots to disperse looters after darkness fell and small shops were set on fire in the Cengkareng and Jelanbar areas. One report said crowds shouted, "Exterminate the Chinese."