Police refuse to free student leader despite pressure

JAKARTA (JP): Despite a hunger strike held by six students and pressure from the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM), City Police refused to back down and release Mixil Mina Munir, a student leader detained for protesting the recent fuel price hike.

City Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob said on Wednesday that the police had gone through the correct procedures in arresting Mixil and there were no reasons to release him.

"In this particular matter, police do not care who protests and in which way. We must uphold the law. Mixil is a suspect. People may hold hunger strikes for him and his friends, it is their right.

"Even if the world falls apart, the police will not release Mixil. He is a suspect and must be brought before a court," Sofjan told reporters on Wednesday.

A student of the Syariah Islamic law school at the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) Jakarta in Ciputat, South Jakarta, and a Forum Kota (City Forum) activist Mixil was arrested with two friends in front of the IAIN campus for inciting chaos on June 16 this year, following a demonstration on the recent fuel price hike.

Mixil's two arrested friends were identified as Haris, a student of the Computer and Information Technology Institute (STIK) and Miftahudin, a driver of a public minivan that plies the Ciputat-Pondok Labu route in South Jakarta.

Six Forum Kota members have been on hunger strike since Friday. Their demand is that Mixil and his two friends must be released.

One of the protesters, Andi Mayer, was rushed to a nearby hospital on Tuesday due to his worsening health. As of Wednesday, he was still being treated at Agung Hospital in Manggarai, South Jakarta.

Rey, another hunger striker, began to shake violently when he woke up on Wednesday morning, while the remaining four protesters simply looked thinner and weaker at the parking lot of Komnas HAM's office on Jl. Latuharhari, Central Jakarta.

A Komnas HAM member, B.N. Marbun, said on Wednesday that he had already met Jakarta Police chief of detectives, Sr. Comr. Adang Rochyana, on the matter.

Marbun said that in his talk with Adang, the commission had requested that the three suspects be placed under house arrest with a guarantor instead; given conditional release on the basis that they were not engaged in any kind of criminal activity during the release; and that police should not physically assault the suspects.

"Pak Adang asked the commission to send City Police a letter on the matter, which we have already done," Marbun told the students during a talk at the Komnas HAM office in Central Jakarta.

The student protesters, however, did not accept this, stating that the police would only manipulate the law.

Marbun informed the students that the police had a right to declare someone a suspect, if it was based on facts. The students insisted that their friends be released, unconditionally.

The dialog turned into a heated argument and ended with Marbun leaving the students and ordering security guards to call the police.

Upon hearing this, the students turned wild and began banging on the doors of the commission office, before entering the office and banging on the tables and walls. They screamed that Marbun must apologize for his behavior.

Marbun finally stepped out of the room and apologized to the students. (ylt/01)