Angry students beat up bus passengers

Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

Amid mounting anti-U.S. sentiment in South Sulawesi, dozens of students from the Indonesian Muslim University assaulted non- Muslims in Makassar, protesting the recent burning of an Osama bin Laden effigy in the predominantly Christian province of North Sulawesi.

The incident occurred near the campus between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. when students stopped all public minivans passing the campus and searched for non-Muslim passengers.

At least four passengers suffered serious injuries after being severely beaten by the students and were placed in intensive care at the city's general hospital.

Witnesses said that the students forced non-Muslim passengers out of minivans they had stopped and then beat them.

A witness, who requested anonymity, said the students checked passengers' identity cards to determine their religion.

"Christian passengers were pulled out by force and then severely beaten," he said, adding that the incident attracted enormous public attention and caused heavy congestion in streets around the campus.

Another witness said the actions ended only minutes after the arrival of riot police.

One student, who also requested anonymity, said that the group carried out the operation as retaliation for the burning of a bin Laden effigy in Minahasa regency, North Sulawesi, a few days earlier.

"The action (in North Sulawesi) has broken our hearts and hurt our feelings," he said.

Last Sunday, thousands of people held a rally in Tondano, Minahasa regency, to commemorate the 40th days after the terrorist attack on the United States. During the rally, which was covered by local media, the people also burned an effigy of bin Laden in support of the fight against international terrorism.

Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian living in Afghanistan, is being hunted by the United States in relation to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The U.S.-led strike on Afghanistan has sparked strong protest among Muslim Indonesians.

Makassar Police chief Sr. Comr. Amin Saleh expressed grave concern over the attacks, saying such an incident would never happen in the city again.

He said that he would hold a meeting with students at the university to prevent them from conducting such actions in the future.

Darwis, a sociologist at Hasanuddin University, urged the police to take strict action against students involved in the incident as it could set a bad precedent in other places.

"The police must arrest those who committed the beatings because such brutality is quite intolerable," he said.

According to him, the students' rationale behind the action had no substance and their action did not represent the views of local people in the province.