Welcome Guest   |  Login   |   Signup
JG Logo
Sat, May 26, 2012
Archive Search

Possible Identification in Self-Immolation Case
Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas | December 09, 2011

Members of Campus Network outside the hospital. They say the victim set himself on fire over government policies. (Antara Photo/M. Agung Rajasa) Members of Campus Network outside the hospital. They say the victim set himself on fire over government policies. (Antara Photo/M. Agung Rajasa)
Share This Page
4
1
0
0
Share with google+ :


Post a comment
Please login to post comment

Comments

Be the first to write your opinion!

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that the man who burned himself in front of the presidential palace on Wednesday could be a Bung Karno University student.

Haris Azhar, chairman of the rights group Kontras said that the description of the man, who still has not been formally identified, fits that of Sondang Hutagalung.

“According to [Sondang’s] girlfriend and his family, his teeth and army-type shoes are identical to the victim’s,” Haris said, adding that Sondang’s family has gone to the Cipto Mangunkusumo state hospital, where the man is being treated.

“The hospital still wouldn’t allow [the man] to be visited by anyone. We can’t confirm anything yet because the man is badly burned.”

The Kontras chairman said that for two months, Kontras and Sondang’s family had lost contact with the student. Prior to the incident, Haris said, Sondang left his cellphone with his girlfriend.

“[Sondang] met his girlfriend. But she said she didn’t know what [Sondang] was up to,” the Kontras chairman said.

Sondang had participated in a number of Kontras rallies and was a member of Munir’s Friends which advocates for investigation into the death of renowned rights activist Munir Said Thalib. 

“He has a student organization called Hamurabi. He likes to hang out at the Kontras office because there is a training here,” Haris said. “He is quite active in Kontras rallies and has been performing in theatrical demonstrations.”

Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital director Akmal Taher said doctors had conducted a DNA test on the victim but DNA from Sondang’s family had not been extracted.

Akmal said the man is under intensive care at the hospital but chances of him surviving are slim.

“He has burns on 98 percent of his body. It is unlikely he will live,” he said.

The man has received wide support from anti-government protesters. Since Wednesday evening, several people from the Campus Network have gathered outside the hospital.

Jati, a member of the group, claimed that he had spoken to a witness who told him that the man, who approached the Presidential Palace from the National Monument (Monas), poured three bottles of gasoline over himself and screamed anti-government messages before setting himself on fire.

Jati added that the witness told him that as the man burned, he continued to walk toward the palace before collapsing. If true, it would be the first protest of its kind in Indonesia.

But Central Jakarta Police’s chief of operations, Sr. Comr. Abdul Karim, said that as far as the police knew, there were no witnesses who could confirm how or why the man set himself on fire.