Twelve soldiers charged over Ujungpandang riots
UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): The regional military command has presented prosecutors wih dossiers on the 12 soldiers accused of "responding excessively" to the recent student demonstrations, in which three people died.
Chief of the Wirabuana Regional Military Command Maj. Gen. Soelatin said that the dossiers were presented on Thursday, and that the prosecutors are currently studying them before proceeding with the military tribunal.
Three of the 12 soldiers are high-ranking officers. "If they are proven guilty, they will be punished," Soelatin said. However, "we cannot say now whether they are guilty. We should hold on to the presumption of innocence until they are proven guilty."
The soldiers will be charged with what Soelatin called an "excessive response" to a flurry of violent demonstrations that involved an estimated 10,000 students from various universities in Ujungpandang.
During the demonstrations, partially marked by vandalism on the part of the students, three died, reportedly because they plunged into a river as they tried to evade the soldiers chasing them. The fatalities then triggered a wave of student demonstrations in many cities, including Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Semarang.
On Thursday in Jakarta, Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman questioned the wisdom of many street demonstrations, including those called as "shows of solidarity" for the dead students in Ujungpandang.
Soesilo argued that the issues the demonstrators raised were already being handled by the government. He pointed out that the demonstrations aggravated the issues and often created the wrong consequences.
Soesilo also said that "guidelines" already exist for holding demonstrations, including ones that say they should be staged by only a handful of people.
Soesilo's statement, as well as the government's plan to establish a law on street demonstrations, invited various reactions from observers.
Bambang Widjojanto, of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, said yesterday that the protection of people's rights should be the first priority in the process of law-making. The rights include one which allows people to express their opinion and to assemble.
"Laws should be made as an instrument of the people to control the behavior of the administration," he said.
Sociologist Ariel Heryanto in Salatiga, Central Java, said that establishing laws on street demonstrations would not improve the situation if they fail to get to the root of the problems. Besides, he told The Jakarta Post, laws often go unenforced.
Ariel expressed sympathy with the students, saying that they took to the streets only out of accumulated disappointment.
"They were not only demonstrating at the deaths of fellow students in Ujungpandang, but also for many other social and political problems that have been left unresolved," he said.
He said the state should guarantee the students' right to assemble, in accordance with the Constitution.
Bambang said it is more urgent for the government to resolve the problems which caused the students to take to the streets in the first place. (20/16/swe)