Troops Active In Djakarta

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31633, 20 March 1968, Page 13

Troops Active In Djakarta

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

DJAKARTA, March 19.

Hundreds of troops guarded key points in Djakarta today as groups of students prowled the city streets where a big anti-Govemment demonstration was held yesterday.

The troops, including mobile armgured units, are part of the 30-battalion force which'General Machmud says he is assembling in the capital to provide security for the Congress session. About 130 new Congress members, appointed by General Suharto to assure himself of a firm Congress majority, were officially sworn in today. Yesterday some 128 new members were sworn in.

The Indonesian Army today held a well-known Djakarta lawyer for questioning after yesterday’s student demonstration, in which two people were hurt

The Djakarta garrison said meanwhile that it had released three of the eight student leaders who were also rounded up after yesterday’s protest march. Troops firing into the air broke up yesterday’s demonstration as students headed for the People’s Congress, Indonesia’s top policy-making body, which will meet on Thursday to proclaim General Suharto as full President and delay general elections. The students carried banners warning of breaches of democracy in the country, and said in a statement they feared a concentration of power in General Suharto’s hands.

The Djakarta garrison com-

mander, Major-General Amir Machmud, inspected 5000 Navy, Air Force, Army and police troops gathered in Djakarta for the Congress session.

He told them the Congress should be "protected from any pressure and intimidation”.