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Jakarta Police on Alert Over Fuel Price Hikes
JAKARTA, June 17 (News Agencies) - Police in the Indonesian capital went on full alert following the government's decision to raise fuel prices by 30 percent, Jakarta Police Spokesman Senior Commissioner Anton Bachrul Alam said Sunday.
"The Jakarta city police has been put on top alert since yesterday (Saturday,) in anticipation of mass protest against the fuel price increase," Alam told the French news wire AFP.
He said 21,000 police personnel were on standby in the field while an equal number were on standby as reserve.
Alam said that in anticipation of strikes by public transportation operators in the capital on Monday, police in coordination with the armed forces and the Jakarta municipality, were readying 100 buses and trucks to help serve commuters.
Police, he said, have so far arrested 11 "provocateurs" for forcing public transport off the roads in several locations in south Jakarta on Saturday.
"They have forced public transporters to let their passengers off and prevented others from taking on passengers," Alam said of the people arrested. He gave no other details. The ANTV television said that most of them were student activists.
The suspects could face up to nine years in jail for obstructing public roads and traffic.
By noon (0500 GMT) the capital was calm and there was no report of mass demonstration as had been feared on Saturday to protest the fuel price hike.
But the ANTV television said that in some areas, especially in South Jakarta, public transport operators had already raised their fare by about 300 rupiah (2.6 cents) without government approval.
The fuel price rise has already led to strikes by public transport drivers in 19 cities across Indonesia , Senior Commissioner Edward Aritonang of the Police headquarters told the SCTV television.
In Bandung, a mass strike forced the police to deploy trucks and buses to transport stranded passengers on Saturday. But public transport was operating on Sunday, a local journalist said.
The city administration late on Saturday agreed to allow public transport operators to raise their fare by 25 percent following the 30 percent fuel price increase, he said.
Alam said police were monitoring the actions of 10 non-governmental organizations which he said were planning to create havoc in the capital by organizing mass protests.
"We have been watching them for some time as there are indications that they plan to mobilize mass demonstration to protest the fuel price rise and cause unrest in the capital," Alam said.
The cash-strapped government, under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to reduce a ballooning budget deficit, had little choice but to go in for the fuel price rise, analysts say.
Burhanuddin Abdullah, coordinating minister for the economy, said subsidies earmarked for fuel from 60 trillion rupiah (5.4 billion dollars) annually would be reduced to 53.8 trillion rupiah.
Abdullah said the government would try to cushion the burden on the poor who rely on kerosene for cooking by earmarking 2.2 trillion rupiah in other benefits, such as education and health.
The price rise was to have taken effect Friday, but the government held back for a day, saying it had to assess social and political costs.
At the height of the regional financial crisis in May 1998, a sharp rise in fuel prices triggered rioting that contributed to the fall of then-president Suharto.
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