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JAKARTA, INDONESIA - RIOT police sealed off Indonesia's presidential palace on Monday as hundreds of students gathered there to protest planned fuel price hikes and rights abuses under the former Suharto regime.
Police said thousands of officers were on standby as tensions across Indonesia mounted ahead of the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, and with anger brewing over soaring inflation.
Police strung razor wire across the road outside the palace and lined up behind riot shields as the mainly peaceful demonstrators chanted slogans and waved banners criticising the government over a range of issues.
Chief among their concerns were the plan to hike subsidised fuel prices by as much as 30 per cent as well as the failure to prosecute Suharto's cronies for corruption and human rights abuses.
A similar protest in Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya briefly turned violent when demonstrators tried to break police lines outside Airlangga university, ElShinta radio reported.
ElShinta said a student suffered a head injury during the clash with police that occurred as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended a ceremony inside the university.
Other rallies were held in several cities in the archipelago's main islands of Java and Sumatra.
They coincided with the 10th anniversary of the start of a popular protest movement against former dictator Suharto, which culminated in his resignation on May 21, 1998.
He died earlier this year without facing justice over billions of dollars he allegedly stole from government coffers during his 32-year rule, or for widespread human rights violations committed by his generals. -- AFP
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