Students continue hunger strike to protest graft case

Students continue hunger strike to protest graft case

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, West Java

At least eight anticorruption activists continued their hunger
strike on Tuesday to put pressure on the Cirebon Prosecutor's
Office to thoroughly investigate a high-profile corruption case
involving councillors and senior officials.

The strike began on March 16 involving 12 students. Seven
other activists got involved in the protest outside the
prosecutor's office, after students from Jakarta, Bandung and
Surabaya arrived to give them support.

However, 11 of the 19 striking students were forced to stop
the protest by Tuesday due to their deteriorating health
condition.

Two of the collapsed strikers -- Suci Kurniati and Sholahudin
Umar -- had to be rushed to Gunung Jati General hospital,
Cirebon, for intensive care as they had been in and out of
consciousness, while nine others had been sent home despite being
very weak.

"Most of those who were forced to stop their hunger strike
were suffering severe dehydration, stomach problems or vomiting,"
protest coordinator Agung Supirno said.

He said fellow students and sympathizers covered the costs of
medical care and other necessities for those hospitalized.

"However, the hospital has provided free rooms for most of
them. We will just pay the cost of medicine," Agung added.

The strike, being staged by activists from the Coalition of
Cirebon Youths and Students (KPMC), was to protest a corruption
case by members of the local legislative council.

Prosecutors have officially declared all 30 councillors, along
with deputy Cirebon mayor Agus Alwafier and former city mayor
Lesmana Suriaatmadja who served in office from 1998 to 2003 as
suspects.

The suspects are charged with misusing hundreds of millions of
rupiah from the city's budget in 2001.

Cirebon Prosecutor's Office head Suraini Dahlan has said the
council members were named suspects as they were directly
involved in approving the 2001 budget, which he said was in
violation of the prevailing regulations.

Suraini said the money paid out for the councillors' expenses
exceeded the maximum amount permitted by Government Regulation
No. 110/2002.

"The allowances paid to Cirebon council members reached up to
Rp 997 million (US$120,000.00) in 2001, while under Government
Regulation No. 110, the maximum amount must not exceed Rp 400
million. We will also investigate whether the allocation of Rp
400 million was determined in accordance with the regulations,"
she added.

Suraini said prosecutors had begun questioning the council's
leaders one by one and would question the deputy mayor as he was
then the council's deputy speaker, who approved the budget in
2001.

She promised to press ahead with investigating the corruption
scandal, locally dubbed "Budget-gate".

Council speaker Suryana and his deputy Sunaryo HW had been
summoned by the prosecutors.

Sunaryo complied with the summons and was questioned for
several hours, but Suryana failed to turn up as he had to preside
over a plenary session to hear an accountability statement from
Cirebon Mayor Subardi.

Former mayor Lesmana Suriaatmadja had previously been
questioned in August of last year.