East Kalimantan Muslim students hold demonstration at Unocal

Some 100 Muslim students grouped in the Muslim Students Union (HMI) held a demonstration Thursday in the front of the office building of oil and gas firm PT Unocal Indonesia Company in the Pasir Ridge area in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, to protest the planned attack by the U.S. government on Afghanistan.

The local Kaltim Post daily reported that the protesting students carried posters of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. who is currently hiding in Afghanistan.

A couple of dozens policemen were seen at the site.

Some students were later received by Unocal Indonesia general manager David Stangor. In the meeting, the students demanded the oil and gas company to ask the U.S. government drop the plan to attack Afghanistan. The protesting students said that if the U.S. government proceeded with the plan, there could be serious consequences to U.S. citizens working in the province.

There has been growing anti-American protest launched by Muslim fundamentalist groups throughout the country recently.(*)