Grieving family buries Tangerang shooting victim

TANGERANG (JP): With tears in their eyes, hundreds of relatives, schoolmates and neighbors of senior high school student Lukman Firdaus attended the burial of the 19-year-old boy at his family cemetery at Dangkal village, Cipondoh here Friday afternoon.

Lukman, one of the victims of the violent clashes between thousands of demonstrators and squads of armed police and soldiers near Jakarta's Semanggi cloverleaf, was buried shortly after the Moslem Friday prayer.

According to his family, Lukman died in the wee hours of Friday after being treated for several hours at the St. Carolus hospital in Central Jakarta.

"Before he went to school yesterday (Thursday), he told me that 'Ma, I won't come home directly from school today because I'd like to see the Assembly session and want to join the university students to fight for reforms," Lukman's mother, Hamidah, recalled.

After having some fried rice and a cup of tea for his breakfast, Lukman then received Rp 2,500 from his mother and went to his state-run SMUN 3 Ciledug.

This was when she saw her son for the last time, Hamidah said.

His family were only able to track down the whereabouts of Lukman at about midnight when a volunteer rang their house to tell them that their loved one had been killed in a clash.

It remains unknown where exactly he was wounded. But judging from an official police letter of his death signed by officer Ashar from the Kebayoran Baru Police subprecinct, it's believed that he was wounded in the violent clash at the Semanggi cloverleaf.

Nobody, including forensic experts from the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital where the post mortem examination of his body was carried out, was willing to explain his wounds.

Forensic expert Siswandi S. from the Law School of University of Indonesia said the cause of his death was still unclear.

But a reliable source at the hospital told The Jakarta Post last night that the schoolboy had a serious injury in the head and at the back.

"His lips were totally bruised," he said.

The record was in line with the x-ray photo of the victim kept by his family.

The photo depicted an open wound in Lukman's head and stabwounds to various parts of his body, neighborhood chief Anshar said.

Hamidah said: "We first tried to stop him taking part in the street rally in Jakarta before we agreed with his reason for joining the other students." (41/ivy/bsr)