2010-11-08 17:07

JAKARTA - Prior to the visit of US President Barrack Obama to Indonesia, a number of student groups staged demonstrations to protest the visit.

A group joined by dozens of University of Indonesia (UI) students staged a protest on Monday in the campus premises, opposing Obama's visit.

The protesters who burned down the United States' flag called on the government to uphold the country's dignity, stop bowing to US government foreign policies, the detik.com reported.

"Indonesian government seems like dead already. It always bows to US policies," one of the student shouted during the protest that was held near the station of trains serving transport for the students to Jakarta's downtown areas.

The protesters also demanded the government to review the contract of US firm's exploitation in gold mineral resources mining located in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua that they said unfair for Indonesia.

UI campus is listed to be one of President Obama's places to be visited during his two-day visit in Indonesia.

Another group joined by hundreds of students, called themselves as Student Movement for Freedom (Gema Pembebasan), staged a protest in front of US embassy in Jakarta on Friday last week.

They opposed the visit of the leader of the country they regarded "a new colonialist".

They stepped on the effigy of President Obama and shouted their condemnation over the visit.  

Indonesia has implemented security measures to secure President Obama during his visit in Indonesia's capital city.

At least 19,000 police and troops would be engaged in the operation called "Garda Nusa 2010" aimed at securing President Obama's visit.

The police and troops involved in the operation have commenced their works two days before the visit scheduled to commence on Nov 9.

Indonesian police spokesperson, Iskandar Hasan, said recently that besides the police, units joining the operation come from police's anti-terror squad and army's special command troops (Kopassus).