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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alex who wrote (7504)	2/12/1998 11:29:00 AM
From: Bald Eagle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116993

Wouldn't that push up the POG? Usually a weaker dollar means higher gold ( and oil ) prices.

To: Alex who wrote (7504)	2/12/1998 12:59:00 PM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116993

JAKARTA, Feb 12 ( AFP ) - Shops were blazing in the town of Jatiwangi Thursday as violent unrest linked to Indonesia's stinging economic crisis edged toward the capital. Hundreds of rioters trashed, looted and burned shops down the main street of the West Java province town in a rage over soaring prices and shortages of basic goods. As their fury boiled over and the mob singled out shops it accused of hoarding essential items for profit, there were reports of unrest from elsewhere in the country with hundreds of students in three major cities demanding political and economic change. President Suharto Thursday ordered the military to boost its readiness to deal with unrest and commanders have prepared plans to seal off the capital to prevent violence spreading here from the rest of the country. More than 35,000 police and troops are on duty or on stand-by in the capital to deal with any unrest. Six stores believed by the mob to be hoarding essential goods were burning into Thursday evening after being torched by the enraged crowd, a witness in the Jatiwangi, 250 kilometers ( 150 miles ) east of here, told AFP by telephone. Some 44 shops and homes, most owned by ethnic Chinese, were damaged and another 15 torched, he said. The rioting began in front of the local telecommunications office around 10:30 a.m. ( 0330 GMT ) and spilled down the main street, where dozens of stores were trashed or burned by a mob that swelled to around 500 people, the witness added. A police officer said 18 people had been arrested but there had been no reports of injuries. "Some of them burned the goods in front of the stores that were looted," added the officer, who declined to give his name. Another resident said telephone lines were down in some areas because of the fires, while nearly all of the town's shops were closed. The officer said the rioters were mostly small traders and pedicab drivers in the town of 75,000, whose residents are mostly farmers and laborers. Troops and police were patrolling the streets among the burning and gutted buildings but the town remained tense, residents said. More than a dozen riots have flared in cities and towns across the country over the past two weeks, but Thursday's incident was the first linked to the crisis in West Java province, which surrounds Jakarta. Hundreds of students rallied in at least three major cities Wednesday to protest soaring prices and call for political change, while police broke up another protest in Jakarta and said they were holding more than 140 participants a day later. In Medan, the country's third biggest city and home to some 12 million people, students marched through the North Sumatra University campus demanding President Suharto's removal and action against corrupt public officials. They also called for the scrapping of a draconian law on subversion and pledged support for opposition figures who have been critical of Suharto, the Jakarta Post said. "Lower prices," "limit presidential power," they shouted as security forces looked on. No violence or arrests were reported. But 25 students were arrested in the Central Sulawesi province capital of Palu when hundreds of students took to the streets carrying banners and chanting slogans demanding lower prices. Many of the city's shops closed in fear of violence but the protestors dispersed peacefully after student leaders met with officials. In Yogyakarta, students from the Indonesian Islamic University urged the military to act against hoarders they claimed were driving up prices. "When the poor across the country cry for fulfillment of basic needs, hoarding commodities is an uncivilized act," they said in a statement. The military has warned it will not tolerate social unrest and has been forced to race to flare-ups around the country as tension increases, with the ethnic Chinese minority often bearing the brunt of the mob anger. But more demonstrations are planned in Jakarta, where millions are feeling the pain of spiralling prices, shortgaes of essential goods and soaring unemployment.