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)