Students protest to Education Ministry

Students protest to Education Ministry

JAKARTA (JP): More than 100 students demonstrated at the Ministry of Education and Culture yesterday, condemning an attack by soldiers on the Christian University of Indonesia's Cawang campus in East Jakarta.

The students protesting last Monday's incident also came from Dr. Mustopo University and the National Science and Technology Institute.

They demanded Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro ask Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung to take responsibility for the incident.

On June 23 soldiers from the Jakarta Military Command in East Jakarta entered the nearby campus looking for people who had attacked a soldier. In the process they injured at least five students.

The soldier who was attacked was set upon when passing a group of men from whom another soldier had escaped. Military Command Spokesman Lt. Col. D.J. Nachrowi said last Wednesday that the soldier who escaped from the angry men had reprimanded them for extorting money.

The men had tried to attack the unnamed soldier, and vented their frustration at the next man who passed in military uniform.

Campus authorities and the military agreed to settle the matter amicably. But students said they were not involved in the agreement.

The demonstrators, who carried banners and read poems, also demanded campus autonomy.

The ministry's secretary-general, Hasan Walinono, accompanied by the minister's military expert Brig. Gen. Suharto, met the protesters.

Hasan said the dispute between the students from the university and soldiers of the Jakarta Military Command should be settled in accordance with the law. (jun)