Indonesian students stitch lips in fuel protest

JAKARTA, June 8 (Reuters) - Two Indonesian students had their lips stitched and joined a protest rally by about 20 students on a Jakarta campus on Sunday to press the government to reverse a recent rise in domestic fuel prices.

The government raised fuel prices by almost 30 percent last month, sparking protests in a country where millions are already suffering from rising energy and food costs.

While Indonesia still has some of the lowest fuel prices in Asia, the issue of fuel subsidies is politically sensitive. Indonesia is due to hold parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

The government says it has no choice but to progressively trim fuel subsidies that cost billions of dollars a year and have become impossible to fund as global oil prices soar.

Crude oil rocketed more than $10 to a new high above $139 a barrel on Friday, up 44 percent so far this year.

"We will stay on track to demand the cancellation of the hike," Nando Sidabutar, a spokesman of Forum Kota, a university students movement, told Reuters by telephone.

Sidabutar said the students would not give up until the government reversed the hike and students from other universities are expected to join the protest. (Reporting by Ade Mardiyati; Editing by David Fogarty)