Student senate attacks 'violent' police search

JAKARTA (JP): The student senate of the University of Indonesia's (UI) School of Letters lambasted a violent police search of a student residence in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta.

The search on Dec. 28 targeted documents of a banned Islamic organization, Negara Islam Indonesia (NII).

Students said last week security officials may have suspected them because several UI students who hailed from Tasikmalaya had visited the house.

An anonymous source said the visit took place two days after a riot broke out in Tasikmalaya following police mistreatment of three religious teachers.

"A few hours before the house raid security officers had arrested a group with NII documents living near the students' house," the source said.

Arief Hafidiyanto, the senate chairman, condemned the search in which students said at least one of them was hit by officers.

"We deplore the search as a groundless act without considering any presumption of innocence," he said.

"We demand the oppressive staff be punished and the search procedure be amended," said Arief, adding that the search had been very traumatic for those involved. Another source said the search attracted crowds to the house, frightening the students.

They said they were afraid the raid would leave a bad image of them in their neighborhood.

The residence was a house rented by members of the faculty's Islamic student organization not far from the campus.

Students said the officers did not show any search warrant and abused the students when they demanded it.

One of the students present at the time of the search said he saw strangers in black vests "turning our house upside down."

"I saw my friends sitting hopelessly in the corner," the source who requested anonymity said.

He quoted officers who said they had suspected the residents were NII members because they had similar practices; playing the tambourine loudly, reciting the Koran behind closed doors, and never wearing shoes inside.

The Indonesian Islamic State concept was first announced by a religious leader, Maridjan Kartosuwirjo, in West Java in 1949.

NII grew rapidly in the 1950s when it found supporters in Central Java, Aceh and South Sulawesi. The movement was then charged as subversive by the Sukarno government which eventually crushed it in 1962 after Kartosuwirjo was arrested.

During the 1950s, Kartosuwirjo's supporters frequently used the Tasikmalaya area as their hideout.

The source said he knew the strangers were military personnel from their vehicles. "One car had the word 'URC' on it and the other had 'Koramil' on it," he said. URC is the abbreviation of Unit Reaksi Cepat, an emergency police squad and Koramil means Military Command Area.

However the commander of the South Jakarta Military District, Lt. Col. Yudo Lelono, said he had never heard of the search and denied his men had anything to do with the search.

"We do not have cars with the word 'Koramil' on it. But I will examine the complaint," said Yudo, promising to give a full statement today.

One of the students said after 45 minutes of searching, the men said they had entered the wrong house and left.

"One of them told me they mobbed the wrong house. Then they just left," the student said. (36)