Students fight for three days

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi: After a three-day brawl among students, Hasanuddin University closed on Thursday and will resume activities on Saturday.

Assistant to the rector Amran Razak said the measure was taken to prevent further victims and material losses.

The brawl started on Monday when a student of the School of Letters reportedly hit an engineering student. The dispute spread and on Wednesday 18 were admitted to Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital. Dozens of rooms at the School of Social and Political Sciences and the School of Letters were damaged. Shattered glass was also found on the grounds of other schools.

The campus is now quiet and police are guarding the entrance.

Amran raised suspicions on outside parties wanting to cause rifts between students, mainly those involved in election monitoring. He cited reports of unknown people dropping weapons, including homemade rifles and bows and arrows. The people were in passing vehicles during the brawl.

"After seeing the injured victims we believed there were outside parties wanting to pit students against each another," he told The Jakarta Post. (27)