Student first aid teams enter the fray

Student first aid teams enter the fray

JAKARTA (JP): Student-organized medical teams have taken on a
crucial role in treating the injured from student protests and
clashes with security personnel.

Amid a reluctance of official medical personnel to venture out
into the danger of the violence, the student-organized teams and
their makeshift convoys of vans-cum-ambulances provide first aid
to victims hurt in the protests and transport casualties.

The first group established was the Emergency Medical Unit
(UMRC), a team of paramedics organized by students from the
School of Medicine of West Jakarta's Tarumanegara University last
May.

"We were moved by the incident at the Semanggi cloverleaf in
Central Jakarta in November last year," the coordinator of the
round-the-clock emergency services office of UMRC, identified
only as Budi, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"Paramedics from the Indonesian Red Cross panicked because
they were not ready to handle so many victims during the
incident.

"No ambulances from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital were
in sight even as the number of victims lying on the street
continued to pile up."

At least five students died and dozens were injured when
students clashed with troops after the end to the Special Session
of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). Students protested
the upholding of the appointment of B.J. Habibie to the
presidency.

Students from the medical school felt they could do their part
to help out wounded protesters.

"We thought of having a medical team of our own to help our
friends," Budi said.

UMRC has 25 members and an ambulance which was lent by the
university's medical school. The university also helps UMRC with
its expenditures.

Being part of an emergency medical team does not mean that
students are free from fear or can avoid being caught in the
middle of clashes between security officers and the protesters.

"I was lost in the crowd during the clash in November last
year. My friends thought that someone must have kidnapped me," a
UMRC member, Relly, said.

"Two UMRC members were shot by rubber bullets during clashes
between students and troops last month."

Like official members of the medical community, the students
also pledge to help out all of those who are injured, be they
students, members of the public or troops.

It created an unforgettable memory for Ichwan, another member
of the team, after enraged supporters of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) took to the streets
on Oct. 20 after their leader Megawati Soekarnoputri's defeat in
the presidential election.

"I was stitching up the wound of a soldier who had been hit by
a rock when the PDI Perjuangan supporters started looking at me
furiously. I was so scared they might take their anger out on
me," he told the Post.

UMRC is better equipped than the Volunteers Team (KSR) at Atma
Jaya University.

"We do not have an ambulance and sometimes the university
administrators prohibit us from setting up a post inside the
campus," Richard Nugraha, a KSR member, said.

"Our medicine supply is mostly donated by the public. The
Indonesian Red Cross lends us the ambulance."

KSR experienced its first street activity in May last year
during a protest on the campus of the Jakarta Teachers Training
Institute (IKIP Jakarta) in East Jakarta, now the site of a
university.

"That was the first time we dealt with victims of tear gas
canisters," another member, Yustinus, said.

Both teams are now so well-known for their medical services
that they are inundated with phone calls from various
organizations the night before a planned protest.

"We don't just deal with students, but also labor protesters,"
Budi said. He said UMRC was on hand in Cibitung, West Java, when
workers from the Mayora cookie factory held a strike earlier this
year.

With street protests a rarity for the time being, the teams
are devoting their services to other problems. For UMRC, it still
involves taking to the streets.

"We how help the street children around our campus in Grogol,
West Jakarta," Budi said.

"We have a 24-hour post to help the children with their
problems." (04)