T

he fuel protests, staged in a number of cities across the nation on Monday, have left trails of damage and bitterness for residents in several areas as some of the rallies turned into looting sprees.

In North Sumatra, the Medan Police arrested 85 people for allegedly damaging and looting a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet on Jl. Sutomo, 14 of whom have been declared suspects.

Some of the suspects were students, while others were jobless residents, traditional alcoholic drink vendors and street singers, North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Syarief Gunawan said on Tuesday.

On Monday night, the protesters reportedly attacked the fast food restaurant, which is located in front of the HKBP Nomensen University. The mob damaged three LCD televisions, three laptop computers and three motorcycles used for food deliveries.

HKBP Nomensen University dean Jongkers Tampubolon expressed concern over the incident, which involved his students.

'We fully support the police in punishing the students who were involved in this attack,' Jongkers said, adding that he himself reported his students' misconduct to the police.

The Jl. Sutomo KFC store manager, Ridwan, said the restaurant had suffered losses of around Rp 2 billion (US$201,000).

Meanwhile, protests against the planned fuel-price hike continued on Tuesday in a number of cities.

In Makassar, South Sulawesi, students from Makassar Muhammadiyah University (Unismuh) and the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) staged a rally, setting fire to tires and blocking the streets. The rally caused severe traffic congestion in the city for hours.

Makassar's Tuesday rally, however, was relatively peaceful compared to the previous day, when students clashed with police officers.

The clash reportedly destroyed classrooms at the Makassar State University (UNM) and Unismuh's entrance gate and classrooms. It is believed that the attackers were part of an organized mob.

The participants, who wore helmets and carried traditional weapons like arrows, launched their attack on the two campuses in the evening.

Meanwhile in Surakarta, Central Java, protesters consisting of students, workers and activists, staged a rally at the Gladak traffic circle.

The rally nearly became violent when the protesters began burning tires on the streets.

The police, however, immediately doused the flames and seized the burned tires.

Separately in Palu, Central Sulawesi, besides deploying personnel to be on guard for possible fuel protests, the Central Sulawesi Police are also heightening security at state-owned fuel company Pertamina's storage depots across the province ahead of the fuel price increase.

Central Sulawesi Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Soemarno said that Pertamina's depots were vital objects, as they contained fuel for distribution to regions in Central and West Sulawesi.

Soemarno added that the police would ensure the safe distribution of the fuel, from each respective depot to a number of filling stations. Additional personnel have been deployed along the distribution routes as a precaution against any possible attacks.

There were four Pertamina storage depots and 70 gas stations in Central Sulawesi, he added.

'Each gas station is being guarded by four or five officers,' said Soemarno, adding that the police had deployed around 300 officers to guard a storage depot in Loli and gas stations in the area.

Ruslan Sangaji and Kusumasari Ayuningtyas contributed the story from Palu and Surakarta