Brawl between STPDN students injures 11

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Eleven youths were injured in a lunchtime brawl that erupted among Public Administration Institute (STPDN) students in Sumedang, West Java, on Tuesday.

A witness said the fight was sparked by a dispute between a second-year student, identified as Simon of Papua, and a fourth- year senior Hasyim Siregar of North Sumatra earlier that morning.

"Simon was caught in the act smuggling in a bottle of alcohol during a class. Hasyim warned him to dispose of the bottle and Simon punched Hasyim," the witness, who would not give his name, told The Jakarta Post.

News of the incident spread and more than 1,000 fourth-year students jeered Simon as he and other juniors, numbering about 3,000, began lunch in the campus dining room.

A food fight denegrated into a full-scale brawl as seniors began throwing plates and glasses at the juniors.

The panicked juniors smashed the dining room's glass front doors as they tried to leave building.

Dozens of lecturers intervened but could not could not stop the fight. They called the Jatinangor Police who broke up the melee.

Eleven students were treated at the campus for injuries ranging from minor cuts and bruises to more serious wounds, Sumedang Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yoyok Subagyo told the Post after visiting the clinic.

Officers had moved all the fourth-year students off of the campus to prevent further clashes and questioned dozens of students from various grades involved in the incident, Yoyok said.

Violence is not new to STPDN, a state technical college that produces the country's bureaucrats. The institute, which is notorious for imposing military-style discipline on its students, made the headlines in 2003 when SCTV television channel broadcast video footage of a junior student, Wahyu Hidayat, who was beaten to death by seniors.

The Sumedang District Court sentenced 10 STPDN students to between seven and 10 months' jail for the accidental killing of Wahyu.

Earlier in 2000, a junior STPDN student Erie Rakhman also died from beatings by his seniors. Seven students involved in that violence were also jailed.

After the 2003 killing, the government decided to move the institute to Jakarta, where it would share facilities with the Institute of Administrative Sciences.

However, the merger will only occur after the remaining students in the Sumedang campus graduate.