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Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - Vice President Jusuf Kalla said police should take stern action by arresting rioters for peace disturbance during rallies, instead of student activists.

"I say police should take stern action because any country will not develop if its people are sluggards and bad-tempered. The rioters must be arrested instead of activists," Jusuf Kalla, who is also general chairman of Golkar Party said here Sunday when opening a national coordination meeting of the party`s success team for the general elections.

The vice president said anyone can launch criticism or demonstration in a democratic situation, but the action should not lead to damage or destruction.

"Anyone may get angry by expressing abusive language in writing, but do not express anger by pelting stones, curses and obscenities.

They are allowed to use abusive words in speeches till exhausted," Kalla cited.

The vice president on the occasion stressed that the police did not arrest student activists, but the rioters.

"Many of activists behaved themselves. In the world the rioters must be arrested," he said.

Police had arrested 17 people on charges of anarchic behaviour while staging an anti-fuel price hike rally outside the parliamentary building in Jakarta on Tuesday night.

University students also held a demonstration in front of their Atmajaya University, also near the parliamentary building.

The vice president said only some hundreds of students carried out an anarchic demonstration in front of the parliament building and other parts of Jakarta a few days ago. It means that many millions of students still agree with the government`s action.

"Only hundreds of students had staged the demonstration. Why should we be affected by the only hundreds of students? And most of them came from outside Jakarta, meaning that Jakarta`s students understood the government`s policy," Kalla noted.

Thus, the government had asked the police to take stern action by arresting the rioters, the vice president added.

Source