Hunger strikers vow to go the distance

JAKARTA (JP): Students conducting a hunger strike at the parking lot of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) office vowed on Tuesday to continue with their action until their detained colleagues were released by the police.

"It doesn't matter how long it takes. If we have to, we will get into the Guinness Book of Records for the longest hunger strike," Yoki Febriansyah of the Bandung Institute of Computer Science and Information told reporters.

It is not certain what is the record for a hunger strike or whether the Guinness Book of Records has such a category anyway.

Yoki joined the hunger strike on Monday to take up where some of his colleagues had left off, either because they had become too ill or decided they could not go on.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 10 students were still taking part in the action, including three of the original six hunger strikers who had participated since June 29.

The students were demanding the release of three colleagues who were detained on June 19 by the police, following a violent street protest in Ciputat, south of Jakarta, against the 30 percent hike in domestic fuel prices.

Their demands have largely been ignored by the authorities. The police, who arrested them on grounds of inciting violence, passed the dossiers of Mixil Mina Munir, Haris and Miftahuddin to the prosecutors' office.

The students on hunger strike were still drinking water and sweet tea, mostly administered by friends who have kept vigil outside the tent set up at the Komnas HAM parking lot.

One of the most determined hunger strikers is Mona, who returned to the tent on Monday only three days after she fainted and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Still looking exhausted and weak, the student from the Nasional University defiantly said, "I don't feel I'm at my best, but I'm not finished yet."

Syarifuddin, a student from the Institute of Social and Political Science (IISIP), was the latest casualty. He was taken to the Sultan Agung Hospital on Saturday.

His place was quickly taken by Ersad from the Jakarta Institute of Management and Informatics.

Two other students from Bandung joined the strike on Monday to replace two who quit on Sunday. They are Yoki and Naga Sintana from Pasundan University.(06)