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Yogya students demo over recent shooting

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Detik - October 2, 2000

Bagus Kurniawan/BI & GB, Yogyakarta – Thousands of students from the Muhammadiyah High School in Yogyakarta, Central Java, have staged a rowdy protest on Monday at the Provincial Legislative Council building demanding the police take responsibility for the shooting of a student.

Under the banner of the Muhammadiyah Youth for Reform Front (Formasi), the students are demanding that the Yogyakarta Police Chief, Brig. Gen. Logan Siagian, fully investigate an incident when police opened fire on brawling students after a game of basketball. A Muhammadiyah student identified as Hasan Alwi (17) was wounded in the back. He is currently still in intensive care at a local hospital.

Formasi strongly condemned the overzealous reaction of the Mobile Brigade in handling the highschool brawl which started after an inter-school basketball game on September 27. The group has given the authorities one week to solve the case. If the police fail to solve the case, the students demanded that the Provincial Legislative Council intervene and seek the dismissal of Logan Siagian. The group also asked that the local Military Police handle the case.

Formasi also demanded that Logan Siagian make a public apology to Muhammadiyah to be printed in the media for one week and that the police pay financial compensation to the victim's family.

Muhammadiyah Youth Association (IRM) general secretary, Arif Jamali Muis, said the case has to be dealt with properly and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. Arif believed the students did not confront the officers, on the contrary, the officers " acted barbarously towards the students". Arif also claimed that Muhammadiyah students were not involved in the school brawl.

Yogyakarta Police Resort Chief, Happy Kartika, said 10 personnel were deployed to the area where the brawl occurred. Four Mobile Brigade officers were armed with assault rifles while the rest carried only batons.

Kartika said that he had received the report on the shooting, but that he suspected the bullet might have ricocheted when the officer fired a warning shot. He said this had yet to be confirmed. Kartika did not say if the officers used rubber bullets or otherwise.

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