JAKARTA Clashes erupted in central Java Friday between protestors and security forces leaving at least 50 people injured, as thousands of students defied calls to abandon rallies and urged President Suharto to resign. Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protest by stone-throwing students in front of the 11 March University in Solo, central Java. Streams of ambulances ferried the wounded to hospitals.

There are some 50 students injured here and we are very busy, Joko, a staff member at Muwardi state hospital emergency ward told AFP. A security guard at the university said it was the largest rally held in the city, 600 kilometres (370 miles) southeast of Jakarta. It was the worst violence in a day of protests, with thousands rallying at universities across the archipelago, brushing aside a plea from the military chief General Wiranto to abandon their campaign.

Wiranto said thursday that after months of protests the country's powerful military, which has a political role laid down in the constitution, had got the message. Essentially, all have agreed that we need these reforms, Wiranto said, urging students to drop the protests and take part in the reform process. But his plea fell on deaf ears Friday, with thousands taking up a clarion call for Suharto to end three decades of iron-fisted rule.

(AFP)