More violence mars student protests

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)