Grieving family buries Tangerang shooting victim

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)