Sick student vows to continue hunger strike

JAKARTA (JP): A student who fainted and was rushed to the hospital, after 14 days on a hunger strike to protest against last month's hike in domestic fuel prices, vowed on Friday that she would resume her action as soon as she recovered.

Physically weak and bedridden with an intravenous drip attached to her left hand, Mona of National University said she would return.

"I will rejoin the protest again once I am released from here, I don't care if I become sick again," she told The Jakarta Post in her ward at Sultan Agung Hospital in Central Jakarta.

Mona was among six original hunger strikers who launched their action on June 29 at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) office. They also demanded the release of three colleagues who were arrested by the police during a violent protest against fuel price hikes in Ciputat, south of Jakarta.

Mona was rushed by friends to the hospital after she fainted on Thursday evening.

The group's spokesman, Mustar Bonaventura, said Mona first complained of a throbbing headache, not long afterwards she was shaking uncontrollably. She was already unconscious when friends brought her to the hospital.

The prospect of the highly spirited Mona returning to action soon looked slim however, as she admitted herself.

"The doctor said that if I don't eat anything, I will never heal completely," she said. "So far, they have not been able to administer medicine to me, because I have not eaten anything."

Mona was the fourth to be hospitalized, but other students have since joined in the action. By Friday, nine student hunger strikers were still camping out at the parking lot of the Komnas HAM building on Jl. Latuharhari.

The latest recruits were three students from the Bandung Institute of Law who joined on Wednesday.

Wahyu, Johny Erwin and Alingga Boyke Primawan said they had participated as an act of solidarity and that many other students from their campus were ready to join in to replace those who fall ill.

The three earlier casualties -- Andi Meyer from the Indonesian Christian University, Ade from the Indonesia Administration Foundation (YAI) and Dedi Setiawan from the Jakarta State Institute of Islamic Studies -- have all been released from hospital. (06)