50 students and officers injured in scuffles
50 students and officers injured in scuffles
JAKARTA (JP): More than 50 student demonstrators and security
personnel were injured in scuffles yesterday in Palu, Central
Sulawesi, Medan, North Sumatra, and Bandung, West Java.
It was another day of protests as thousands of students in
widespread pockets of the country continued their unceasing
demonstrations for political and economic reforms.
Over 1,000 students of Tadulako University in Palu were
involved in a scuffle with antiriot police when they tried to
force their way through a security blockade to get to the
provincial legislature building to convey their demands.
The students in 80 minibuses, five trucks and dozens of
motorcycles were stopped by security officers as their motorcade
was about 300 meters off their campus.
Police used tear gas and fired rubber bullets to disperse the
rally and drive them back onto the campus.
Students resisted and pelted stones at the police. At least 30
students and two police officers were reportedly injured.
Donggala police subprecinct chief Lt. Col. Adrizal Adnan
maintained that police were forced to take harsh measures as the
demonstrators became increasingly violent.
"The demonstrators were not patient while we were negotiating
the students' request to go to the provincial council," he said.
Although he acknowledged arrests of several students caught
stoning security personnel, he said he did not know the exact
number.
Burning
A similar incident in Medan resulted in injuries to four
police officers and one student as a shower of stones began when
students were stopped by a security blockade.
Thousands of students of the Medan Teachers Training Institute
(IKIP) took to the streets in the city, causing traffic jams on
several roadways near the campus.
The antiriot police used tear gas but the student protesters
refused to retreat to the campus.
Five demonstrators were arrested for questioning.
Things took a turn for the worse last night when a mob walked
on Jl. Pancing, near the IKIP campus, and started throwing rocks
at shops and buildings. One truck was also set ablaze.
However, it was not immediately known if the mob was composed
of students.
In another part of the city earlier yesterday, hundreds of
students of the privately run Dharma Agung University staged a
free-speech forum on their campus to demand immediate reform.
Separately, Maj. Gen. Ismed Yuzairi, the newly appointed chief
of the Northern Sumatra Military Command, met with several ethnic
leaders in the province to ask for their participation in helping
pacify the increasing raucousness of the student movement.
"We respect the difference of opinions but it should not cause
instability," he said.
Meanwhile the Malaysian consulate in Medan has reportedly
advised Malaysians to take care and stock up food following
increasing student demonstrations.
Malaysian students and workers in Medan also have been issued
special cards by the consulate so they can easily be identified
as foreigners if they get caught up in a riot, the New Straits
Times said.
Consul-General Mohamed Nor Atan said that although the
situation in Medan was under control by Indonesian authorities,
the increasing spate of student demonstrations forced the
consulate to take extra measures to protect Malaysians.
There are 230 students studying mainly medicine in Medan,
while 72 Malaysians are working as plantation, factory and hotel
managers.
The consulate has reportedly also introduced a system for
Malaysians to alert each other in case rioting gets out of
control and they have to leave the country.
In Bandung, West Java, two students were hospitalized and 16
others were treated at a university polyclinic when hundreds of
students of Pasundan University were involved in an altercation
with security officers.
The skirmish occurred when security personnel tried to stop
the students from making their way to the campus of the Bandung
Institute of Technology in the city.
The two sides calmed down after the university's deputy rector
Sidik Priyadana arrived and appealed to students to disperse.
In Semarang, Central Java, more than 1,000 students
from several universities and institutes staged a joint
demonstration which briefly went off the Diponegoro University
campus grounds.
They shouted "Long live workers, long live farmers and long
live the people" as they marched.
The students dispersed peacefully after antiriot police
arrived.
In Yogyakarta, about 200 students of Cokroaminoto University,
calling themselves the Students Action Committee for Reform,
clashed with police when they marched on streets around their
campus. Eight students were injured.
The students went back to their campus and dispersed after the
antiriot police used tear gas.
In Malang, East Java, four students were detained for
questioning after thousands of students were involved in scuffles
with security personnel yesterday.
Eleven students and 45 police officers were injured.
The incident occurred when thousands of students from Merdeka
University and the National Institute of Technology marched on
the streets and rejected police calls to return to their campus.
Chief of the Malang police precinct Lt. Col. Hary Sudewo said
the four arrested would be investigated and probably tried
because the student rallies could no longer be tolerated.
The injured students were released after receiving medical
treatment at the Saiful Anwar General Hospital. (rms/21/nur/swa)