International Student Movement

July 7th, Indonesia:
Day of Action against Militarism

The following report was sent in by the student group PEMBEBASAN to inform about the day of action.

On 7th of July 2014, we held actions to express our refusal of the return of the military regime. We spread awareness, that the military regime could be a nightmare for democracy. In Indonesia, tomorrow on 9th of July there will be presidential elections. Prabowo Subianto, one of the presidential candidates, was a former general who led the army special forces (KOPASSUS).

In 1998, Prabowo Subianto kidnapped dozens of activists and 13 activists are still missing until now. Prabowo also ordered his troops to kill and imprison activists ahead of the collapse of the military dictatorship, which existed for 32 years. The majority of victims were Chinese. They were raped and brutally murdered. Prabowo's policies were very racist.

Prabowo escaped from a human rights court because the bourgeois elite did not have the courage to catch him. Now, Prabowo wants to be president, collaborating with political parties which were the main supporters of the military dictatorial regime from 1966 to 1998. Prabowo, as a former general and violator of human rights, he was also a very wealthy businessman. Other presidential candidates, in our opinion, did not dare to oppose the rise of the military power. Among those in power, there are also general human rights violators. The two presidential candidates follow capitalist policies. So, we, from the Center of Student Struggle for National Liberation (PEMBEBASAN), reject the return of the military forces with demonstrations and the distribution of fliers. Actions took place some different provinces, Middle of Sulawesi (Palu), Yogyakarta, East Java (Mojokerto) and Jakarta.