Stern measures urged against student regiments

Stern measures urged against student regiments

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representative urged city military
authorities yesterday to take stern measures against university
student regiment members who terrorize students detained at a
police station.

"They thronged the police station and asked police to "lend"
the detained students to them as they apparently wanted to take
revenge. It was terrifying," Legislator Sukowaluyo Mintohardjo
said during a meeting with a six-member delegation at the House.

The delegates, who claimed to be representatives of the Action
Front of Indonesian Students (FAMI), criticized the government's
"reluctance" to ban the regiments.

As reported last week, 12 students from the Nature Lovers
Association (Himpala) of the National University have been
detained at the South Jakarta police precinct since Thursday for
allegedly burning an in-house command post of the university's
student regiment on Oct. 18, which eventually sparked a bloody
clash.

The clash was apparently a continuance of an earlier dispute
between a Himpala member and some regiment members on Oct. 14 and
the damaging of the in-house Himpala secretary by unidentified
parties the next day.

Two members of the delegate, Christina Siswayuni, 20, and Ida
Lestahulu, 21, both students of the university, told House
members yesterday that the regiment members had kidnapped two
rock-climbing enthusiasts from a youth center on Oct. 14 and left
them unconscious on a street in Pulo Mas, East Jakarta.

Christina said that both victims currently under medical
treatment at the Fatmawati hospital in South Jakarta.

"The regiment members are still after the other students,"
Lestahulu added.

FAMI groups a number of students, of whom 21 were jailed last
year for defaming President Soeharto.

Revocation

Arifan Syafe'i, the spokesman of the delegate, asked
Sukowaluyo, also the vice chairman of the House commission for
education affairs, to revoke a three-minister decree which
justifies the existence of the regiment.

"Its bad side outweighs its good side," Syafe'i said, adding
that Indonesia is not in a state of emergency.

He said that Himpala supporters burned the command post
because they could not stand the humiliation any longer.

Syafe'i was supported by Reza, 24, one of the 12 detainees.

Speaking with reporters at the South Jakarta police precinct
yesterday, Reza said that the burning and damaging of the
regiment command post on Oct. 18 was purely a spontaneous move by
the Himpala members and their supporters.

Reza strongly believed that the Himpala post was damaged by
members of the regiment as witnessed by two female students.

In a related development, the South Jakarta police admitted
that they have not yet questioned any parties allegedly involved
in the first incident near the campus which caused injury to a
Himpala member who immediately reported the case to the nearby
Pasar Minggu police subprecinct.

"It's not easy to call the students for questioning but we'll
initiate it as soon as possible," said head of the crime
investigation unit.

According to the 12 students' lawyer, R. Akbar Lubis, the
police should have taken immediate action after receiving the
first report in order to avoid a fatal impact.

He has been also informed by other members of the Himpala that
a number of regiment members were seen gathering around their
houses in the past few days.

"It seems to me that they are terrorizing the other Himpala
fellows," he told reporters yesterday.

Akbar urged the City Coordinating Agency for National
Stability (Bakorstanasda Jaya) to take immediate action against
the regiment members before further chaos. (09/bsr)