More violence mars student protests

JAKARTA (JP): Violence became an increasingly unavoidable feature as more and more student demonstrations demanding reforms and protesting against the fuel and electricity price increases broke into clashes with security officers.

In Jatinangor, a throughway just outside Bandung, West Java, at least seven students and several residents were injured when a street demonstration staged by students of the Padjadjaran University, Winaya Mukti University and Ikopin Institute was forcibly dispersed by security forces.

Several shop stalls near the protest scene were damaged.

As a result of the protests the Bandung-Sumedang-Cirebon traffic was brought to a standstill for more than three hours.

In the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang, thousands of students from seven universities held separate protests.

Tempers quickly spilled over as students were obviously still bitter over the shooting of one of their colleagues during a protest the previous day. The student, Amir Syarif, 24, was hit in the arm as police fired warning shots. He was still recuperating yesterday.

At one protest, a police officer was beaten up and a car windshield was smashed.

The officer, a corporal, was beaten up when he passed a group of protesters in front of the Indonesian Muslim University.

At a separate protest, several hundred students descended on the provincial legislature office. The protest quickly became rabid after the students were not allowed to meet legislators.

Students then vandalized the office, smashing 10 garden lights, window panes in the council's main entrance door and flower pots.

They also lowered the national flag and ripped it to make it into bandannas.

The commotion stopped after police fired a series of warning shots into the air.

Students also calmed down after student leaders agreed to peacefully leave the grounds after being urged by Ujungpandang Police Chief Col. Jusuf Manggabarani.

Claims

In Yogyakarta, students and police released their respective claims of injuries and arrests following violence which broke out Tuesday evening near Sanata Dharma University.

Yogyakarta Police chief Col. Bani Siswono said 11 people were injured in Tuesday's violence, and 19 people, including nine students, were questioned.

"Those people secured will only be asked some information over the incident. If they are later found innocent, we'll let them go," he told journalists at his office.

Bani's account differed from the university students' advocacy team, which said 50 students had been taken by the police, and that 17 people -- five students and 12 local residents -- were missing.

According to the advocacy team, 43 people were injured and 13 motorcycles were damaged by security apparatus during the melee that lasted until dawn yesterday.

In Jakarta, about 80 students of Mercu Buana University went to the National Commission on Human Rights to lodge a complaint about police violence during Tuesday's demonstration.

At least 21 students and security guards of the university were injured, several by rubber-coated bullets fired by security officers. From the security apparatus' side, at least 11 were hurt.

The students presented their testimony to commission members -- Clementino dos Reis Amaral, Soegiri, Samsuddin and M. Salim -- by showing them videotapes, a tear gas canister, a bloodied security guard's uniform, and over a dozen bullet casings.

Their testimony was backed by two lecturers.

"With testimony from their lecturers, the commission believes the students' account of the incident to be 100 percent true," Samsuddin, who is a retired Army two-star general, told the mass media after hearing the students' complaint.

"We believe that there's been a violation of procedures."

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said: "If there is sufficient proof that there are officers who violated procedure in such an incident, they (the students) should have come to us."

Separately, Jakarta Military Command spokesman Lt. Col. DJ. Nachrowi said the military had intensified security watch around campuses, particularly those which frequently staged rallies.

Meanwhile the National University, which had been the sight of several violent demonstrations in the past few days, announced yesterday that it was suspending classes for three days. (team)