Five missing, three injured in Medan demonstration

Five missing, three injured in Medan demonstration

MEDAN (JP): Five students went missing and three others were
injured in a violent demonstration that lasted well into the
night on Saturday in Medan, North Sumatra.

The Students Association of the University of North Sumatra
charged that the five students were taken away by plainclothes
officers, and that the three injured students were shot in the
head and chest with rubber bullets.

The student body issued a statement demanding that security
forces release the five.

It also blamed police for the violence at the demonstration as
some 500 officers pushed protesters back into the campus as they
tried to take to the streets. The statement, issued on Sunday,
also demanded an apology from the police for their action.

North Sumatra police spokesman Lt. Col. Amran Karim denied the
police arrested any students. "There are regulations to be met to
make an arrest. We can't do it just like that," he said.

In a media conference yesterday, Mukhlis, the deputy chairman
of the students association, said hundreds of other demonstrators
fainted or vomited after police sprayed them with tear gas.

Earlier in the week, Medan students hurled Molotov cocktails
at police in a serious escalation of the campus protests around
the country that began in February.

Indonesia has been hit by an economic crisis that has seen the
value of the rupiah plummet some 70 percent against the U.S.
dollar and food prices rise sharply. The students are demanding
reforms to end the crisis.

Most protests have been peaceful and police and security
forces have tolerated them as long as the demonstrators remain on
campus.

But, increasingly, students around the country appear ready to
challenge the authorities by trying to take their protests on to
the streets.

There were several other demonstrations and student meetings
around the country Saturday. They were largely peaceful, like the
one in Yogyakarta, when more than 5,000 Gadjah Mada University
students were joined by former student activist and noted
economist Revrisond Baswir and actor Butet Kertaredjasa.

By midday, Darmadjati Supadjar, a philosophy lecturer at the
university, had joined the rally which lasted well into the
night. In a speech Supadjar warned the government about the
worsening crisis and urged it to meet the students' demand for
reform.

In his speech, Butet called on President Soeharto to step
aside.

In Semarang, Central Java, around 2,000 female students and
housewives carrying toddlers with bigger children tagging behind
them, marched around Diponegoro University. Some beat traditional
drums while others chanted "Allahuakbar" (Allah is the Greatest)
and called for a jihad for reform.

Also participating in the rally were students from Gadjah Mada
University, the Yogyakarta Teacher Training Institute and 17
Agustus University.

In Surakarta, Central Java, 3,000 students from Sebelas Maret
University, housewives and children braved a downpour and
continued with their rally. They waved posters and unfurled
banners, one of which read "reform or death."

Satjipto Rahardjo, a member of the National Commission on
Human Rights, urged the Armed Forces (ABRI) and students to work
together to fight for reform.

"This means that both sides should understand each other," he
said.

Noted sociologist Loekman Soetrisno from Gadjah Mada
University hailed Saturday the recent calls from the Nahdlatul
Ulama and Muhammadiyah Moslem organizations that ABRI should join
the student movement and fight for reform.

"ABRI, as a part of the community, should not take sides with
any political forces, should remain neutral and become the
nation's backbone in defense and security," he said.
(rms/har/21/23/44)