Students on hunger strike to protest fellows' detention

JAKARTA (JP): Six students and an NGO activist, all of whom are members of City Forum (Forkot) have gone on hunger strike in the grounds of the National Commission of Human Rights, demanding the release of fellow students detained by the police for protesting against the fuel price increase.

The six students and the activist began their hunger strike at the rights body's offices on Jl. Latuharhari, Central Jakarta, last Friday, vowing that they would not start to eat again until they required hospitalization.

The hunger strikers are Rey from the Indonesian Christian University (UKI), Dedi from the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN), Ciputat, Jakarta, Mona from the National University (Unas), Ardi from the Jakarta Theological Institute (STTJ), Andi from Sahid University and Buyung from the Alliance of Students, Youth and People.

"We are staging this hunger strike because the police's detention of Mixil, Aris and Miftahudin is a violation of human rights," one of the striking students, Ardi, told The Jakarta Post, adding that Forkot also filed a complaint with the rights commission on June 29.

Jakarta Police arrested Mixil Mina Munir, an IAIN student and also a City Forum (Forkot) activist, along with Aris, a student from the Computer and Information Technology Institute (STIK), and Miftahudin, the driver of a public minivan plying the Ciputat-Pondok Labu route in the Lebak Bulus area of South Jakarta, on June 16 for protesting the fuel price increase.

Forkot spokesman Mustar Bona Ventura said Mixil, who was injured during his arrest, had been placed in an isolation cell in the police lockup in order to ensure that no one could visit him.

Ardi and Mustar said the right to protest and stage demonstrations should be guaranteed by the law and, therefore, the arrests of the three should be challenged.

They added that police officers often ignored human rights norms when arresting protesting students.

The students said they were feeling weak and they spoke in low voices. They were lying in front of their tent in the rights commission compound, with a banner on the wall behind them reading, "Hunger strike action to release our friends."

Besides the banner, they had also placed several hand-written pamphlets on display before them. One of them read "Free our friend Mixil, he is not a corruptor" while another read "We will starve ourselves until Mixil is released." (01)