Supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid as well as his opponents staged rallies across Indonesia yesterday as tension over his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals increased, Miriam Donohoe reports.
In the capital, Jakarta, several hundred members of President Wahid's Muslim National Awakening Party gathered to pray for their beleaguered leader. An anti-Wahid rally was attended by about 900 students in the central Java town of Solo.
In the president's heartland of east Java, around 2,000 Muslims gathered to pray for peace following a week of violent protests in the province. Police said the prayer gathering, at a park in Malang, was under the banner of peace rather than in support of President Wahid.