INDONESIA:

ARRESTED STUDENTS NEED SOLIDARITY:

The following appeal was transmitted via the new Asian Anarchist Network that Molly has mentioned before on this blog. It concerns 7 students who were arrested last month. The following has been slightly edited for grammar and clarity....

SEVEN NOMMENSEN STUDENTS WERE ARRESTED, ACCUSED OF BURNING AND DESTROYING THEIR UNIVERSITY
WE DEMAND THEIR UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE!
HKBP NOMMENSEN is a batak-christian University located in North Sumatera, Medan.

It all started on August 2007 when the PENMARU (new students orientation) was taken over by the rectorate. This caused anger on the the part of students. When the student orientation was started, on Gelanggang Remaja Medan, around twenty students came in to boycott and took over the microphone stating that the event was not legitimate because students had no part in organizing it. After that, the rectorate decided to stop the student orientation.

The frequent flows of boycott led to scorsing(???-Molly) of twenty students and the firing of twenty-two students. According to Nommensen students, only twenty people participated in the boycott, so there are other students who don’t know anything about it and were accused of participating. When the rectorate issued this scorsing and firing letters, the students were getting anxious. Students started to create a massive pressure and forced the rectorate to make a statement. The statement somehow doesn’t make any sense. The rectorate accused those students of being impossible for academia, and of being gamblers and dan(???-Molly) drug addicts. And this statement had no connection with the boycotting of the student orientation that led to the scorsing and the firing.

The occupation of HKBP University started on October and at the same time they continued to spread solidarity campaign among students and on other campuses. On November, the parents of these students met with the rectorate, but the meeting ended up wasting their time. It's became more suspicious when they found out that there were no legal letters about the scorsing and firing. Until February 2008, fed up with the useless protests and compromises, the angry students started to destroy the university. On February 20th, Seven of them were taken into custody and accused of “Property Destruction”.

Most of the students involved are student activists. They were part of the Nommensen Discussion Group (KDN) who serve as a catalyst for student radicalization on their campus. These active students were disturbing the rectorate plan to militarize the campus. One of the facts is that the rector is a high military official. So it is obvious that this student group is a threat to the university. The reclamation of student orientation was a plan to militarise the campus and to cut out student organization from having direct control of it.
Therefore, we, Solidaritas Anti-Otoritarian, urge you to express your solidarity with the arrested students and to demand the unconditional release of the Seven students of Nommensen:
THE NAMES
- Jhoni Walinton Butarbutar
- Chandra Manurung
- Bernard Simaremare
- Bernard Marpaung
- Horas Simanjuntak
- Joshua Nababan
- Dian Sinulingga
What you can do?
Issue a statement to your nearest Indonesian embassy for their unconditional release. Make a direct protest. Or anything that you think might help to release our imprisoned comrades. The struggle continues…
Further communication:
affinitas@riseup.net
arm_da_spirit@yahoo.com