Hazing steps up tension in UKI<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of members of the university military
\ngroup (Menwa) of the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) raided
\nseveral buildings belonging to Forum Kota (City Forum) activists
\non Saturday evening. The raid followed a clash which happened
\nduring a university student initiation earlier in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
No fatalities were reported during the attack. All the windows
\nof the three Forum Kota's buildings located on the university
\ncompound in Cawang, East Jakarta, were broken, and all the
\ncontents of the rooms were scattered on the floor.<\/p>\n
Remnants of burned clothes and papers were seen outside the
\nfences of the buildings.<\/p>\n
The university authority has issued a warning letter, posted
\non the fences surrounding the area, notifying that the buildings
\nwere temporarily sealed off from any activity.<\/p>\n
\"I saw Menwa members in uniform come to the Forum Kota's
\nbuildings around 12 p.m. on Saturday,\" Mrs. Maruli Simanj untak,
\na wife of a UKI lecturer whose house is only a few metres away
\nfrom the buildings, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.<\/p>\n
She said Menwa members brought wooden sticks and sharp weapons
\nwith them. \"But no guns were seen.\"<\/p>\n
Earlier on Saturday evening, three members of the UKI student
\ninitiation committee were injured by stones and hard objects
\nthrown in a clash between Menwa and committee members at UKI's
\nother campus on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The three injured committee members were identified as David,
\nHoras and Hendra. Horas and Hendra were taken to the UKI Hospital
\nin Cawang, but were released the same evening.<\/p>\n
The clash started when a freshman was asked by an initiation
\ncommittee member to sing a song, which insulted the Menwa corps.
\nUpon hearing the song, several Menwa members who were present hit
\nthe committee member.<\/p>\n
Their action led to a clash between the two camps.<\/p>\n
Initiation committee leaders then decided to move the closing
\nceremony to the university's Cawang campus.<\/p>\n
Pangiutan Silalahi, a Menwa member, said he saw initiation
\ncommittee members along with dozens of Forum Kota members
\ncarrying machetes and wooden sticks on Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
\"They took Menwa uniforms out of the Menwa secretariat and
\nburned them. They left the university compound around 7 p.m,\" he
\ntold The Post at the campus on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Pangiutan said the Forum Kota members also vandalized another
\nMenwa secretariat, destroying all its windows. \"The second was
\nrenovated just a month ago.\"<\/p>\n
Eli Salomo, a senior Forum Kota activist, confirmed that many
\nForum activists were also members of the initiation committee.<\/p>\n
\"The clash was not between Forum Kota and Menwa. It was the
\ncommittee members against Menwa,\" he said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Forum Kota, a loose alliance of several university students,
\nis a radical student group which helped tumble the former
\ncountry's strongman, Soeharto, in May last year.<\/p>\n
The presence of Menwa has repeatedly been criticized by many.<\/p>\n
In 1995, the South Jakarta District Court sentenced four
\nstudents of the National University in South Jakarta for five to
\nseven months in jail, after the judge declared them guilty of
\ndestroying and assaulting Menwa members in Oct. 1994.<\/p>\n
The jailed students defended that they attacked the members
\nbecause the latter often bullied them. (asa\/04\/anr)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/hazing-steps-up-tension-in-uki-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}