Organization: Central Michigan University
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 14 Dec 1992 08:12:06 EST
From:         Elliott Parker <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject:      ID: Military calls on Moslem leaders to calm students

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To: Indonesian Students Mailing List <indonesians@janus.berkeley.EDU>,

                     Copyright 1992 Agence France Presse
                              Agence France Presse

                                December  7, 1992

DATELINE:  JAKARTA

     Jakarta  military commander Major-General Kentot Harseno has called on
Moslem leaders to help stem the rising number of mass student street brawls, the
Kompas daily said Monday.

    Kompas quoted Harseno as telling more than 1,000 Moslem leaders from
 Jakarta  and its surroundings at the military headquarters here Sunday that
some of the recent mass brawls here had "tended towards religious
confrontations."

    "Please help us guide our students so that they do not fall easily prey to
rumours or illegal pamphlets inciting brawls. Conflicts with a religious
background will only lead to vengence and would never end and we all will only
lose from it," Harseno told the Moslem leaders.

    "It would be embarrasing for us, Moslem believers, who are so many in this
country, if we fall for incitements and then attack or make an enemy of our
brothers from other faiths," he said.

     Jakarta  military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Permana told the same
gathering that police Saturday arrested 75 high school students who had started
to gather at a large square in central  Jakarta  with the intention to attack
another school.

    "The students had fallen prey to rumour that a student had burned a holy
religious book, but when the rumour was checked it was untrue, it turned out to
be a mere rumour," Permana said.

    Harseno said the incitements were likely to be the work of communists, who
he said would continue to resort to anything to destabilize the government just
for the sake of change.

    The government banned the then powerful Communist Party of Indonesia and its
teachings in 1966 in the wake of an abortive coup blamed on the party.
Indonesian officials and the military have continued to warn people of the
possible revival of communism here.

    Harseno last month said the Indonesian armed forces will deploy its members
to deal with the increasingly violent student street brawls.

     Jakarta's  police records show that a total of 127 such brawls took place
here during the first 11 months of 1992 and led to nine deaths, 12 people
severely injured and 19 others lightly wounded.

    The figures also show that 968 students had been detained because of
involvement in the brawls but that all but 135 of them had been released.

    Kompas said that Harseno was planning to hold similar meetings with leaders
of the other religions soon.

    Meanwhile the  Jakarta  Post daily quoted Home Affairs Minister Rudini as
warning religious groups not to act in ways which could be deemed offensive to
others, such as building a place of worship in an area where the faith has no
followers.

    Indonesia has the world's largest Moslem population with more than 80
percent of its 180 million people following Islam. There have been several
reported attacks on Christian churches in east Java and Sumatra since August.
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