ABRI says protests border on anarchy
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto warned yesterday that the military would clamp down hard on student protesters who take their demonstrations off campus.
Gen. Wiranto told journalists after meeting President Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential office that on a number of recent occasions when protests moved outside the campuses the result was anarchy, causing injuries and destruction of property.
He cited the unrest in Medan, North Sumatra, on Saturday where students clashed with security forces.
"This is proof that the moment students leave their campuses their protests become uncontrollable," and added that students risked being infiltrated by agitators.
"I have ordered all regional military commanders to take stern action to prevent anarchy, as happened in Medan," Wiranto said. "I have ordered the commanders to take stern action against offenders who destroy property."
Many of the protests in Medan have turned violent in recent days after students forced their way out of their campuses, breaking the military cordon. On Saturday, students set fire to cars and threw Molotov cocktails and pelted the security forces with stones.
Wiranto said students were supposed to be intellectuals but these qualities became doubtful if they destroyed shops, set fires to vehicles and threw bombs and bricks at security officers.
"There is nothing intellectual in such behavior," he said.
The military always considers students as the nation's future leaders, not enemies, said Wiranto, who initiated a dialog with students last month in an attempt to defuse tension.
Students should not take their protests to the streets, he said. "We want the students to remain on campus to avoid the possibility of being manipulated."
We have put our officers around the campuses to prevent the students from being infiltrated from outside, he said. This noble gesture was often misinterpreted.
Campus protests have been growing in recent weeks as Indonesia endures its worst economic slump since the 1960s. Thousands of students have staged almost daily rallies, calling for the lowering of prices and sweeping political reforms.
Dozens of university students visited the National Commission on Human Rights office yesterday to file a complaint over what they perceived as repressive measures taken by the military during their protests on Saturday.
The students, from various private and state universities in Greater Jakarta, brought bullet shells, photographs and a video recording to prove their case.
The students were received by commission members Albert Hasibuan, Clementino dos Reis Amaral, M. Salim, and Soegiri.
Students said they were involved in clashes with security officers when they tried to take their protests onto the streets.
Dozens of protesters were injured in the clashes, six of them wounded by rubber bullets, and rushed to hospitals.
Separately, four major student organizations -- the Association of Moslem Students, the Association of Indonesian Catholic Students, the Indonesian National Students' Movement, and the Indonesian Christian Students' Movement -- also demanded a public apology from Gen. Wiranto for the military's handling of the protests at the weekend.
Two students -- Benny Rhamdani from the Sam Ratulangi University in Manado and Wahab Talaohu from the Jakarta University -- began a hunger strike at the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute office yesterday to protest the military's forceful action against the students in Jakarta.
House Speaker Harmoko called on the government yesterday to respond positively to the students' calls for reform.
"The people's increasingly critical stance over the government's performance and policies should be seen as one of the results of the country's development programs, especially over the people's political education," Harmoko said at a plenary meeting of the House to kick off a new series of hearings. (prb/imn/byg)