Indonesia’s Joko Widodo promises probe after violent unrest leaves two students dead

Protests over changes to the country’s anti-corruption agency prompt president to pledge an investigation into the deaths as activists call for review of police conduct

The unrest presents a difficult balancing act for the president, who must tiptoe the line between conservative elites and populist pressures

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 28 Sep 2019Updated: 1:24pm, 12 Dec 2019

Two Indonesian university students have died after a week of nationwide demonstrations against controversial legal reforms, prompting calls from activists to investigate police use of force and leading President Joko Widodo to promise an investigation into the deaths.

The students, both men, were in Kendari on Sulawesi island, where one died of blunt-force head injuries and the other by a live bullet.

Police insisted the officers deployed against thousands of protesters were not equipped with live ammunition, though in pitched battles that took place in several cities including Jakarta they unleashed tear gas and water cannons on rock-throwing youngsters, drawing comparisons online to unrest that has wracked Hong Kong for months.

The clashes were fuelled by anger over a law that would weaken the country’s anti-graft agency and planned revisions to the criminal code that would compromise the rights of women and minorities.

There were smaller-scale rallies in the capital on Friday, with police chief Tito Karnavian saying at least 200 people had been arrested since the protests began.

Riot police face off with protesters in Sulawesi on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

On Friday, as Widodo promised to get to the bottom of the deaths, the president said in Jakarta: “I told the national police chief that his personnel should not act repressively.”

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