Protesters urged to stop attacking security officers

Protesters urged to stop attacking security officers

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djadja
Suparman appealed on Saturday to student protesters to stop
attacking security officers in order to prevent a possible rift
between the Armed Forces (ABRI) and the students.

Djadja made the comments in the wake of clashes last week
which included the student-military encounter under the Senayan
flyover in Central Jakarta on Thursday, the alleged military
attack against a bus carrying Indonesian Christian University
(UKI) students near their Cawang campus in East Jakarta in the
evening of the same day and the assault of an ABRI member by
students the next morning.

"I'm afraid that if the students keep attacking the soldiers,
there will be retaliation. I don't want that to happen.

So let's return to the existing legal rules and norms that we
agreed in order to avoid dissent between us," he told a media
briefing at the command headquarters on Saturday.

He also warned that any conflict between ABRI and the students
could be exploited by certain parties to discredit ABRI's public
image.

"I'm afraid that certain parties -- using the name of ABRI --
will do that thing (attacking the students) which would then lead
the public to think ABRI is taking revenge on the students,"
Djadja said.

The two-star general insisted that ABRI would never take such
retaliation.

"ABRI operates according to the legal norms and is involved in
the reform process, including legal reform, and maintaining human
rights above other things," he said.

On Friday night, about a dozen armored vehicles were on alert
in front of the UKI campus on Jl. Mayjen Sutoyo in Cawang, 400
meters from Djadja's headquarters.

Troops were reportedly singing atop the vehicles and their
lights were shone into the campus compound. The vehicles were
pulled back at dawn on Saturday.

According to Djadja, the vehicles were deployed to secure the
campus from possible attacks from other parties after the
students reportedly assaulted an officer on Friday morning.

"The armored vehicles were there for security reasons and to
prevent certain parties (from attacking the campus) as they were
dissatisfied with the student's action, including examining
passengers of public buses, abducting and assaulting ABRI
members," he said.

Djadja, however, refused to name the parties he was referring
to.

He said First Private Jumbadi from the Special Armored
Vehicles group of the 7th Cavalry Battalion in East Jakarta was
captured by UKI students in a special operation and was attacked
until he fell unconscious in the campus at 7:50 a.m. on Friday.

During their operation, he said, the students stopped all
public transportation from passing in front of the campus, to
ensure no one found the soldier.

He said that Jumbadi, who suffered brain damage, was sent to
Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta at about 10 a.m.

"He was on his way back to his post at Patra Kuningan (South
Jakarta) from his residence when the incident took place. He had
received permission to return home to arrange his wedding."

Jumbadi's identity card, cash totaling Rp 400,000 and his
bayonet were taken away by his captors.

"The students' action is beyond the limit of humanity. They
did this thing as if they felt that they are invincible," Djadja
said.

The incident was believed to have been sparked by the clash
near the Cawang flyover on Thursday evening.

During that incident, unidentified soldiers reportedly fired
at a Himpurna bus carrying UKI students home after staging a
rally under the Senayan flyover in the afternoon.

According to the students, after puncturing the bus' tires,
the soldiers then boarded the bus and beat the youths, leaving at
least 22 students injured. As the students refused to get off,
the soldiers left the bus and sprinted toward the Cawang flyover
and disappeared.

The military claimed that the overcrowded bus was not shot at
and the back tires were deflated shortly after it veered onto the
sidewalk.

But the students insisted that it was the soldiers who shot at
them "using rifles."

Djadja admitted on Saturday that shots were fired at the scene
but only into the air as warning shots, and they were not aimed
at the bus.

The soldiers, he said, fired the warning shots purely to
defend themselves from being attacked by the students, who rode
on two buses.

"No live ammunition was found at the scene of the incident,
only rubber bullets," he said.

What happened was that the soldiers, who were heading to their
nearby base in Cililitan, were chased and beaten by the students,
the general said.

"It was self-defense by the security officers," Djadja said
referring to the shots.

"Reports that the security officers were blocking the buses
heading to UKI are totally wrong," he said.

During the briefing, Djadja also explained that soldiers who
were now deployed to secure the capital, including at the House
of Representatives complex, only carried batons and shields.

"Only four members in each company are allowed to carry tear
gas and rifles armed with blank and rubber bullets," he said.

The decision was designed "to avoid clashes and casualties
caused by live ammunition," he said.

Moreover, he said, people always blamed the security forces in
any fatal shooting incident of using live bullets.

Commenting on the brutal clash between security forces and
students on Friday afternoon under the Senayan flyover near the
House, Djadja said the unrest occurred because the student groups
already involved other general people to join their movement.

"If they were all real students, they would have used
intellectual approach. But in this case, they used violence. They
armed themselves and attacked the soldiers," he said.

Djadja also apologized if the security forces had used
repressive measures in dealing with the student protesters.

"We apologize if security officers have acted beyond the limit
of human values. We did it to secure the capital from
disintegration," he said. (ivy)