Students demand truth on riot death toll
JAKARTA (JP): Some 100 students demanded yesterday that the government be more "transparent" about the number of deaths in last month's street protests in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi.
"We want transparent investigations into what happened during the riots, including the number of deaths," Garda, one of the protesters, told reporters.
"We believe that the number of fatalities is in fact higher than what the government has admitted," he added.
The students, hailing from various provinces, were organized into a group calling itself the Front of People's Action (FARI). They staged a one-hour protest in front of the office of the Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security, Soesilo Soedarman.
Unable to meet with the minister, the banner-waving students left the office at 12 p.m., dispersing peacefully under the watchful eyes of security officers.
The government and the National Commission on Human rights, each conducting separate investigations, said that three people died in the Ujungpandang protest. Students, however, claim that they lost up to eight colleagues during the violence.
Twelve soldiers will be court-martialled this month for their alleged "excessive response" to the violent protest, which involved an estimated 10,000 students from various universities in Ujungpandang.
Students in Ujungpandang took to the streets in a wave of demonstrations which began on April 22 to protest the public bus fare increase from Rp 300 (13 U.S. cents) to Rp 500.
The protesters clashed with security officers who entered their campuses, chasing students with rattan sticks and making arrests.
Separately, secretary-general of the Ministry of Home Affairs Suryatna Soebrata took lightly the Ujungpandang students' demand that Ujungpandang's mayor resign in connection with the incident.
The authority to decide whether mayor Malik B. Masri should resign or not lies with the local legislative council, he said.
Suryatna said he had not received any request for the mayor to resign. (imn)