Over 90 students arrested for brawl

Over 90 students arrested for brawl

JAKARTA (JP): Police arrested and charged 91 students from
various technical high schools with brawling after an early
Saturday morning altercation which sent at least three youths to
the hospital with injuries.

According to the police, the brawl started at around 7:15 a.m.
on Jl. Sudirman in Central Jakarta inside a Mayasari Bhakti bus
plying the Ciputat, South Jakarta - Pasar Baru route.

"The bus was almost full of students heading for their
respective schools in Central Jakarta when another large group of
students who were walking suddenly stoned the bus," the driver of
the P18 B bus, Sarno, 27, told The Jakarta Post.

"I don't know which schools all the students were from, but
what I do know is the brawl was started by the students on the
ground," he said.

Police sources quoted students as confirming that the attack
erupted when the walking students, believed to be from a
technical high school, pointed to the group of students on the
bus and started running toward the bus and throwing stones.

The stone throwing smashed most of the bus windows, forcing
the driver to stop and the passengers to disembark into the
street in a panic.

As the attack escalated, a police truck full of elite Mobile
Brigade officers passed by and rushed to stop the brawl.

Many of the students on the street fled easily, but almost all
of the students still inside the bus were detained.

They were taken to the Jakarta Police Headquarters for further
questioning. Once there, the students were told to strip down to
their underwear.

The police confiscated at least five knives from them.

The three injured students, Firdaus, Freddy and Syafrizal,
were rushed to the hospital.

"None of them were seriously injured," said an officer.

Preliminary questioning revealed that the arrested students
were from STM I Boedi Oetomo, STM V and STM IV PGRI.

"I wish I knew the background of the brawl," said the Boedi
Oetomo school's principal M. Khusen, who went to the police
headquarters to see his students.

Saturday's brawl is believed to have involved the largest
number of students yet.

Since the new school year started in July, student brawls have
been frequent. Many people expect the number of fights to further
increase in the next few months unless the authorities take stern
action to curb them.

According to police data, there were 12 student brawls in the
first six months of this year.

Last year, there were 215 brawls recorded, with 12 students
and one other person killed, compared to 160 brawls with 10
students dead in 1994.

The data also show that a total of 604 students were arrested
and 77 of them were jailed for fighting last year. (bsr)