100 teenagers seek to `borrow' arson suspects
JAKARTA (JP): About 100 unidentified teenagers surrounded police stations in the wee hours yesterday, asking to "borrow" detainees suspected of having burnt the command post of the National University's student regiment in South Jakarta on Tuesday.
Informed police sources said that they were driving at least 25 cars and some of them were in military-look clothes.
It is strongly believed that the group wanted to take revenge by teaching lesson using their own ways to the suspects, who are all students of the university.
According to the sources, who refused to be identified, they first came to the Pasar Minggu police station before moving to the South Jakarta police precinct office at around 2 a.m.
However, none of them were able to get into the office building as on-duty police officers had closed the gates and ordered the unidentified group to disperse.
"They surrounded the two buildings with their cars roaring and asked to get in to see and borrow the suspects," the sources said.
In Pasar Minggu, the teenagers were dispersed by head of the police station Maj. Suro Jauhari, who was apparently still in his office when the incident happened.
From the top of his three-story office, Suro asked them to immediately leave the yard before the police decided to take any action against them.
Failing to meet their need, the group then went to the South Jakarta Police Office on Jl. Darmawangsa I, asking for the same request.
No fatality and damage were reported.
The command post of the university in Pejaten area was set on fire Tuesday during a street brawl involving students and regiment members. The fire completely razed the station, which was utilized by members of the student regiment for campus security purposes.
The fight, which took place amid a celebration of the university's 45th anniversary, was triggered by Friday's incident in which several regiment members assaulted a student following a trivial traffic incident.
Witnesses said dozens of angry students, equipped with spiked clubs and baseball bats, initially attacked two members of the regiment by ransacking their command post and setting it on fire.
Victims
As of yesterday, at least 15 students had confessed of their role in the attack and the burning of the post, while five regiment members are still being treated at nearby hospitals, said head of the South Jakarta police precinct Lt. Col. Silvanus Julian Wenas.
"Most of them come to the police station on their own initiative," Wenas said.
He, however, refused to comment on the unexpected visit of the unidentified teenagers.
He urged all parties involved in the mishap to remain calm because the police are striving to solve the case immediately and bring those allegedly involved to the court for the trial.
Based on preliminary investigation, the two parties involved in the dispute are divided into two groups: one consists of the university's Association of Nature Lovers (Himpala) and the other the regiment members.
It is strongly believed that the dispute between the two groups is mainly caused by differences over their candidates for the rector election.
"We're on our way to investigate detailed backgrounds which sparked the clash," Wenas said.
On a related development yesterday, City Military Commander Maj. Gen. A.M. Hendropriyono yesterday blasted media reports over the incident, saying that the media had tried to pit one student against another.
"After all they are fellow students, aren't they?" he said.
Hendropriyono, therefore, called on the media not to harshly blame members of the regiment, stressing the role of the media to cool down the tense situation in the university.
Instead of some officers in plain clothes, not even a single anti-riot officers was seen at the university's campus yesterday. (bsr/yns)