Students to be brought to court, Police say

JAKARTA (JP): Police say they have nearly completed the dossiers for the hundreds of students they detained for the possession of illegal weapons and drugs.

Col. R. Indro Wasito, head of the Jakarta Police Command Center for Control and Operation, said yesterday that at least 300 students will be brought to court.

Since police operations were launched early this week in reaction to the recent spate of student brawls, more than 800 students have been detained.

Three students, aged between 13 and 18, have died from the brawling.

While President Soeharto has expressed his concern with the violence, City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata has said that the student brawling still has not reached a serious level.

Many of the students were also arrested for not carrying identity cards.

"Believe it or not, 300 of the 800 students were found carrying sharp weapons, some of which were deadly," Indro said.

A father told police officers that he knew his son carried a machete, which he claimed was for outdoor work at school.

The rest of the students will be sent to orphanages for various courses, which usually include sessions on morality.

Other weapons found in schoolbags or under uniforms included daggers, pocket knives, sickles, blades passing for pens, and belts with bicycle cogwheels or steel discs in place of buckles.

Indro was also concerned that most of the students were wearing ripped-up uniforms.

"I don't know how their parents and teachers could allow these children to wear their uniforms like that," an interrogator said.

Another officer remarked that the tattered clothes make students feel like fighters (jagoan).

"Their emotions get fired up easily" in encounters with other students, the officer said.

In South Jakarta, Police Chief Lt. Col. Sisno Adhi said in a meeting with 50 principals that police officers may be assigned to patrol certain high schools.

Sisno said the officers will also advise students on how to keep their school environments safe.

Another principal told The Jakarta Post that so far the police have been reluctant to guard schools in certain dangerous areas at potentially dangerous hours.

"We have told them the potential days and hours for brawls are right before holidays, and on Friday and Saturday afternoons," he said. "We're not asking that they guard us 24 hours, but still the police say they lack personnel."

Schools are willing to pay security fees to local police and military officers, he said. (bsr/04/anr)