At least seven people have died, hundreds have been injured and public buildings have been burnt and looted after thousands of people took to the streets in anti-government protests across Indonesia over the past week.
The clashes between riot police and rock-throwing protesters that began in the capital and quickly spread beyond Jakarta have been seen as a major test for President Prabowo Subianto, a former general who has been in office for less than a year.
The protests began on 25 August, with thousands demonstrating outside parliament against a housing allowances for MPs that was nearly 10 times the minimum wage in Jakarta. Prabowo has simultaneously implemented strict austerity measures, including cuts to education, health and public works.
Demonstrators were also protesting against what they termed “corrupt elites” within the government and policies that benefit conglomerates and the military, according to a press releasee from the student group Gejayan Memanggil.
The statement was an apparent reference to the growing role of the military in civilian life under Prabowo’s government.
The demonstrations spread across the country and turned increasingly violent on Friday, after the death of a 21-year-old deliver driver in Jakarta. Footage showed a team belonging to the nation’s elite paramilitary police unit running him over late on Thursday as it drove an armoured car through a group of protesters.
Government buildings and police headquarters have been set ablaze by protesters around the country, with demonstrations taking place in Gorontalo city on Sulawesi island, Bandung on the main island Java, Palembang on Sumatra island, Banjarmasin on Borneo island, Yogyakarta on Java, and Makassar on Sulawesi.
At least three people were killed on Friday after a fire started by protesters at a council building in the eastern city of Makassar. A fourth died in the same city on Friday after he was beaten by a mob who mistakenly believed he was an intelligence officer.
A student died in clashes between riot police and protesters in Yogyakarta on Friday, while a 60-year-old pedicab driver suffering from acute asthma was found unconscious after being exposed to teargas at a protest in the city of Solo and died on Sunday while being treated at a hospital.
Over the weekend finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati’s house was looted, although she was not at home, and several lawmakers have reportedly had their houses ransacked.
Authorities say they have detained more than 1,240 rioters after five days of protests in Jakarta while according to the city’s governor, Pramono Anung, the damage as rioters burned buses, subways and other infrastructure has caused losses of up to 55bn rupiah ($3.3m). He also said 700 people had been injured in the protests.
Prabowo, who has cancelled a high-profile trip to China to attend a major military parade, on Sunday ordered the security forces to take firm action against the protests.
“There are signs of unlawful acts, even leading to treason and terrorism,” he said. “To the police and the military, I have ordered them to take action as firm as possible against the destruction of public facilities, looting at homes of individuals and economic centres, according to the laws.”
However he also announced that lawmakers’ perks – including the contentious housing allowance – would be cut, as well as overseas trips, a rare concession to the protesters.
Prabowo also said that police were investigating seven officers linked to the incident in which the deliver driver died, and that he had instructed a quick and transparent investigation in a way that the public can monitor. He said he would ensure his administration financially supported the driver’s family.
On Monday he struck a defiant tone once more, announcing he would promote 40 police personnel injured during the violence. “There might be police members who were wrong … But don’t forget dozens of officers who sacrificed themselves,” he said during a visit to a hospital treating injured police.
The United Nations on Monday called for an investigation into the alleged use of disproportionate force at the protests, while Human Rights Watch accused the Indonesian authorities of having “acted irresponsibly by treating the protests as acts of treason or terrorism”.
The rights group’s Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said the response was especially concerning “given the security forces long history of using unnecessary and excessive forces against demonstrators”.
Foreign embassies and consulates, including the US, Australia, France, Canada and other southeast Asian countries, have issued travel warnings and advised their citizens in Indonesia to avoid demonstration areas or large public gatherings.
