Police offer rectors guns for protection

JAKARTA (JP): Expressing a desire to provide protection on the campuses of both state and private universities, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob offered guns to the heads of universities.

Sofjan said on Wednesday that Jakarta Police Headquarters was ready to provide guns to the rectors.

"I do not ever want university rectors to fear for the safety of their students ... because certain parties, claiming to be students, cause chaos outside university campuses," Sofjan said.

"Of course, this is only when it is absolutely necessary," he said.

The statement was made after Sofjan met with dozens of rectors from universities in Greater Jakarta.

Sofjan said recent protests near Bung Karno University in Central Jakarta, the Indonesian Christian University in East Jakarta and Borobudur University were not organized or attended by students studying at the universities.

Civilians in general are not allowed to possess guns. Weapons are meant to be available only to collectors and hunters who obtain strictly controlled licenses. Those holding certain positions in the government may also carry guns.

While Sofjan offered guns to rectors, student activists expressed their concern with violence committed by the military and police on campuses.

The activists accused the security personnel of employing violence to break up student demonstrations, despite the fact that the military and police are meant to be politically neutral.

Speaking at a discussion were student activist Bona Sigalingging and Hilmar Farid, an activist from the Volunteers for Humanity.

Bona said security personnel dealing with student protests had become more violent than during the era of former president Soeharto era, as the students had also grown more vocal and critical.

"State violence, by the military and the police, has been openly committed in public against students since Soeharto's regime," he said, adding that this was also occurring in houses of worship and hospitals.

He referred to the violence that erupted in 1999 during a protest near the Semanggi cloverleaf, which also saw military personnel and police officers ransack the Jakarta Hospital.

"The hospital was free from smoke but not free from the security personnel's tear gas," Bona said.

Hilmar Farid said the public was now taking a stand against violence committed by security personnel against students and universities.

"People are responding and not just standing still, as happened in the 1960s when the military raided schools and arrested lecturers alleged to be communists," he said.

According to Hilmar, the violence occurs because the military and the police fail to grasp the importance and significance of university campuses.

"Military personnel will never realize that a campus is a place where young intellectuals 'prepare' their minds and sharpen their critical knowledge," Hilmar said.

The secretary-general of the Nation Commission on Human Rights, Asmara Nababan, said Indonesia had ratified the 1949 Geneva Convention, which stipulates that hospitals, schools, houses of worship and artistic centers cannot be the targets of violence.

"Logically, our security personnel should also have some humanitarian knowledge," he said. (ylt/emf)