Unidentified assailants open fire on students rallying in Makassar

MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (JP): Violence tore apart a semblance of peace here as three students were shot by an unidentified group of assailants in front of the Satriya Makassar University during a protest on Friday.

Eyewitnesses said the assailants were on motorcycles and in uniforms commonly worn by riot police.

The students were Sadrak, who was shot in the arm, and Matius and Hajar Aswad, who were shot in the legs.

Hundreds of students of the private university took to the streets on Friday in protest against the fuel price hike which had triggered an increase in prices of basic commodities.

They burned used tires and set up a roadblock in the southern part of the city, causing severe traffic congestions since morning.

In the afternoon, Makassar City Police chief Sr. Supt. Aryanto Budihardjo spoke to the students, asking them to remove the street barricades to ease the traffic congestion.

A group of motorcyclists then suddenly appeared and opened fire on the students. They sped off so quickly that nobody could identify them or the motorcycles they rode.

"I have no idea who they were," Aryanto said, assuring that the assailants were not his men.

The shooting took place only one day after Governor HZB Palaguna and students from the state Islamic Institute "made peace" and agreed to set up a joint team to monitor commodity prices in markets.

Makassar has been rocked by fierce student demonstrations since Monday.

An attack by an unidentified group of people on protesting students took place in Yogyakarta on Thursday. Police denied any link to Friday's attack.

Price control

In response to the violence-marred rallies in Makassar, the Golkar Party faction at the House of Representatives threatened to quit the ongoing deliberation on the draft 2001 state budget unless the government controls the falling price of unhusked rice in South Sulawesi, while ironically other consumer goods are on the rise.

Deputy chairman of the Golkar faction, Parawansyah, who is a native of Makassar, said the unhusked rice price has dropped to between Rp 500 and Rp 700 per kilogram from the government- approved price of Rp 1,050 per kg after the local logistics agency (Bulog) declined to purchase the unhusked rice due its financial shortage.

"So far, there are more than 160,000 tons of unhusked rice remaining in several stores in Pinrang regency and 300,000 tons have been abandoned in other regencies because of Bulog's weak purchasing power," Parawansyah told a media conference.

He said the government should stop the import of low-priced rice and force Bulog to purchase the unhusked rice from farmers instead of securing the national stock.

Enggartiasto Lukito, another member of the faction, said the government could allocate part of the Rp 800 billion it gained from the reduction of fuel subsidies to purchase the farmers' rice.

Golkar faction chairman Syamsul Mu'arif said the student demonstrations was the main topic of the faction's plenary session on Friday because the fuel price hike was only a trigger while the main problem is the people's disappointment with the government's inability to purchase the thousands of tons of unhusked rice in the province and control the prices of essentials.

Parawansyah dismissed reports that political motives were behind the violent student demonstrations. (27/sur/rms)