Taufik Wijaya, Palembang – On Tuesday May 4, thousands of students from Palembang in South Sumatra held an action over the attack on the Indonesian Muslim University campus in the South Sumatra provincial capital of Makassar [in which scores of students were wounded by police on May 1]. They demanded that the Indonesian chief of police be sacked.

The solidarity action was joined by students from the Palembang Muhammadiyah University (UMP), the Bina Dharma University, Usri, the IBA University and the Raden Fata State Institute of Islamic Studies. The action began at the Palembang water fountain on Jalan Merdeka at around 11am and was followed by a long-march to the offices of the South Sumatra governor via Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Kapten A. Rivai. Prior to this, UMP students had set fire to tyres in front of their campus.

At the governor’s offices, they held short speeches and read out a statement. The demonstrators also carried banners reading “The police are responsible for the violence against UMI students”, “Sack police chief Da’i Bachtiar”, “Students are not sheep” and “Condemn acts of violence and militarism”.

As well as protesting the violence by police on the UMI campus, in their statement they also demanded that the police officers who perpetrated the violence be dealt with by the law.

According to the plans the students should have continued on to the South Sumatra police headquarters on Jalan General Sudirman, but in the end it was canceled. “The demonstrators who joined the action are not yet consolidated. So we delayed taking the action there, perhaps tomorrow [we will] hold an action at the Police headquarters”, said Chandra, the chairperson of BEM UMP. (asy)

[Translated by James Balowski.]