Clashes mar celebrations of Human Rights Day

BANDUNG, West Java (JP): Hundreds of students celebrating World Human Rights Day Saturday clashed with security forces who stopped them from marching down the street.

Security officers in anti-riot gear sealed the campus of Bandung Islam University where the liveliest celebration took place.

Students trying to force their way out were clubbed with rattan sticks while two journalists mistaken for protesters were also hit, eyewitnesses said.

One officer, Second Lt. Abdul Muis, was injured by a flying stone hurled from the student crowd during the tumult, though no one was arrested, police said.

The human rights day was also celebrated at Bandung's Pasundan University and the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN), where no incidents were reported.

In the three universities, student activists took to the podium to raise numerous human rights violations they said were rife in numerous places both in Indonesia and abroad.

Issues in Indonesia they raised included the June closing of three Jakarta-based weeklies, the numerous labor disputes that have stemmed from the denial of workers' rights and the situation in East Timor.

The students unfurled banners in which they expressed their concern over the abuses of human rights worldwide. They also sang songs and read poems protesting the practices.

At Bandung Islamic University, tension developed after the students were disappointed about the absence of Baharuddin Lopa, the secretary general of the National Commission on Human Rights they had originally invited.

"He (Lopa) couldn't show up because he had something else to do," the celebration committee chairman Imam said.

Chief of the Central Bandung police precinct, Lt. Col. Ade Rahardja, said that the students' throwing stones at the security officers amounted to criminal behavior.

"The student act was beyond the tolerable limit. It's a criminal act," he said.

Student sources said the police "picked up" three students for questioning who were later released. Imam Rusydi, one of those questioned, said they saw the injured Muis in the hospital.

Imam said that at the hospital, Lt. Col. Ade pointed at Muis and told the students: "Look what you guys have done to him".

Drama

In Jakarta, commemoration of World Human Rights Day was marred by news about the cancellation of a popular play, Marsinah, which tells the story of the labor heroine who was killed in Surabaya last year.

The play, produced by the well-known Teater Satu Merah Panggung, was scheduled to be performed at Taman Ismail Marzuki but was canceled five days ahead of schedule when the committee cited an absence of funds.

The drama, which had previously been performed in Jakarta, Bandung and Surakarta, was scheduled to go on stage from Dec. 13 and 14.

Play director Ratna Sarumpaet told Antara that the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), which sponsored the drama with 24 actors, decided to cancel it because of financial reasons.

The two-hour drama was a success and tickets were almost always sold out for every show. Ratna said that she was flooded with requests that it be performed again in Jakarta. (pet/pan)