Deadly student brawls highlight new school year

JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Governor of Social Welfare R.S. Museno has expressed concern over the growing brutality of student brawls which have left two students dead and dozens of others injured in the first week of the new school year.

"I think brawls which have been taking place on streets are mainly due to the lack of activities at many schools," Museno said.

He suggested that schools in the capital hold constructive events for students in an effort to curb student brawls.

"The amazing number of brawls and their victims over the past few days have us very much concerned," Museno said.

The latest victim was identified as Yopi Wahyudin, 17, a second-year student of privately-owned SMU PAMI senior high school on Jl. Dr. Sutomo in Central Jakarta.

He was fatally stabbed in the right leg while he tried to get away from a group of stone-throwing students and onto a bus on Jl. Suryopranoto in Harmoni, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday afternoon.

According to an injured student, Rusli Effendi, who was on the same bus, the victim had already got off the bus before he tried to get back on.

"As he stepped off the bus, he was blocked by other students who threw stones at the bus," said Rusli. "Right after he started getting back on the bus, one of the students stabbed him with a knife."

The attackers immediately split up after several on-duty traffic policemen rushed to the scene.

In the dark

Although the suspect was identified as a student of a vocational school in West Jakarta, officers from Gambir Police subprecinct are still in the dark of his whereabouts and the motive behind the killing.

Earlier on Saturday, Chairul Ramdan, 18, a third-year student of SMU Utama I at Kayu Manis in East Jakarta was also fatally stabbed while trying to help a friend, who was beaten by a group of students from another school at a bus stop in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

Based on eyewitness reports, local detectives arrested Iv, a student of SMU Guntur in Bendungan Hilir, as a suspect in Ramdan's death.

In another related development yesterday, Central Jakarta Police nabbed dozens of senior high school students and found at least 12 sickles in their schoolbags.

Student brawls in the city normally take place during the beginning of the school year in July and the start of the mid- semester period in January.

Police and military officers usually carry out massive operations against students to confiscate weapons.

In January this year, for instance, police detained nine of 72 students involved in a brawl for carrying sharp weapons on a packed bus on Jl. MT Haryono in East Jakarta.

At least 19 students were killed and over 100 injured in street clashes last year.

As of this month, police have recorded the death of five students, including Yopi and Chairul, in street brawls, with 40 deaths so far this year.

Out of 430 students netted this year, 376 were released, 45 were arrested, and nine were sent to court. Four buses and two cars have also been damaged.

A police officer at City Police Headquarters said student brawls usually peak during the first couple months of a new school year and also in September and October.

He said most students involved in brawls were second-year students.

"They play a role, along with third-year students, in indoctrinating freshmen about rival schools," he said.

Students' words

Students did not agree with the officer's allegation.

Kemong, 18, from STM Negeri III technical school, said seniors never indoctrinated younger students.

"We only inform them about schools who usually attack us, so younger students can take care of themselves by avoiding certain students from those schools," said Kemong.

Kemong was netted on Tuesday for being involved in a brawl on a bus with students from STM in Cawang. Police later released him and 30 other students, but asked their parents to come to the headquarters for a meeting.

But Kemong admitted that students had to fight or else they would be called 'sayur' (vegetables) or 'tahu' (tofu) for being cowards and uncooperative.

Uka, 18, a student from STM Penerbangan, said street fights among STM students were just a form of exercise. "It happens mostly during new semesters," he said.

Uka and his friends said their enemies were not only students, but also street musicians, hoodlums and both police and military officers.

One of their friends, they said, was stabbed to death with a screwdriver by a street musician last year. (ste/cst/04/bsr)