Students demand action on hunger

SEMARANG, Central Java (JP): Some 250 students of the Semarang State Islamic Institute (IAIN) staged a protest at the local legislative council here on Wednesday to demand immediate action to overcome increasing malnutrition and starvation.

Should prices continue to rise, their statement said, the country would inevitably face "a generation rife with poverty and stupidity".

Muhtasith, the protest coordinator, said basic needs were not only inaccessible because of price but because of widely reported "cheating" in the distribution system.

Many "barbaric" officials "have the heart to fish for their own joy in the midst of people's suffering by hoarding basic goods and smuggling them out of the country," the statement said, referring to reports that traders have been profiting from higher prices overseas due to the sinking rupiah against the dollar.

"If necessary, such officials should be hanged," the statement said. (har)