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Taken from the World Socialist Web Site of the International Committee
of the Fourth International at:  http://www.wsws.org

Indonesian police seize eight students during a Bandung election rally

7 June 1999

The WSWS received the following information from an Indonesian
reader. Eight students were seized during an election rally last
Thursday in Bandung, one of the country's largest cities. The details
of the incident make clear that the police and armed forces,
including their intelligence units, have been active in the course of
the Indonesian election campaign. The detentions point to the real
character of the military-backed regime just below the veneer of
democracy so carefully cultivated during the election campaign. It is
also a sharp warning of the type of police treatment that will be
meted out after the poll to anti-government protesters.

�Today eight of my friends were detained for holding an anti-Golkar
rally
in Bandung. And by 'detained' I don't mean they were taken away with
due process, etc. We were holding a rally and from the beginning we
were �escorted' by one Dalmas unit (Dalmas means mass control police
unit, or public control), but through the whole rally all they did was
follow
closely behind us. We were joined by several groups of [Megawati
Sukarnoputri's] PDI Perjuangan supporters who were campaigning. Then
at one point we split ways with the PDI-P group and that's when the
police came down from their vehicle and started to 'disperse' us,
beating
and chasing us.

�Most of us were in panic, because we have a rule that if one of us were

to be detained we would all have to be detained, but this was hardly the

case now. The police didn't issue a warning or anything. They just
yelled
and started to chase us. We never expected anything like this to happen,

especially now in the 'reformasi' times. We have held rallies before and

this has never happened. I think they must have gone beyond their
chief's
commands, because my friend remembers seeing the chief trying to block
some of them.

�Anyway, most of us managed to escape. But they got eight students
who are still at the station now. A team from the LBH (Lembaga Bantuan
Hukum�a non-profit legal aid organisation) is trying to lobby for them.
It's quite hectic so I don't really know what's going on with the
paperwork. I am sure my eight friends are fine, they're tough, but the
thing that amazes me most is the unexpected moves the police made.

�It has been a long time since we students have seen brutality like this
in
the streets of Bandung. It was a shock to us. We have contacted the
press and we will have a press conference tomorrow; we do not know
how the press will react to this... maybe they will decide to ignore it
because it was truly a blunder on the police's part. I know this case
will
probably get lost in the wind, but for us students it is a startling
slap in the
face. The security measures being used on us have taken a different
turn,
and we can no longer be carefree with our actions. We hate to think of
what will happen to us in the future after the elections.

�I can't quite say what happened back there today. It's too early to
tell,
and after all, I am emotionally worn out, and physically exhausted. But
all
I know is things are getting strange. It is quite abnormal for them to
visibly terrorise us like that, with everything out in the open. Even
the
cameramen of the intelligence officers didn't bother to hide their
handicams, and some of the intelligence cars actually chased one of my
friend's cars all the way up to campus�that is NOT likely of them.�

The eight students are from the United Students Communication Forum
(FKMB) which is active on six university campuses in Bandung. They
have since been released. But as the reader commented in a further
communication: �They are in quite bad physical condition. The police
assaulted them in the truck before they were taken to the station. They
purposefully took my friends on a 'joyride' before actually taking them
to
police headquarters because they knew once they got to the HQ they
wouldn't be able to lay their hands on them anymore.

�The press coverage on this event has been terrible. One paper
mistakenly (or purposefully?) called us MPR (Mahasiswa Progresif
Revolusioner) which means Progressive Revolutionary Students. Where
did they get that? A name like that is sure to scare away the people
from
our movement. Republika, a prominent right-wing Muslim paper, said we
provoked the police into getting down from their vehicles (why on earth
would we do that?) and that we were 'provocateurs' who tried to
instigate chaos among the campaigning masses, etc, etc...�

Readers: The WSWS invites your comments. Please send e-mail:
editor@wsws.org