Police nab 22 for attack on Dutch consulate in Medan

Apriadi Gunawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Medan   |  Thu, 04/03/2008 1:36 AM  |  Headlines

BAD REVIEW: Police officers guard the Dutch Consulate in the North Sumatra capital Medan on Wednesday, after it was attacked by Muslim students protesting an anti-Islam film made by a Dutch politician. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)

North Sumatra Police arrested 22 university students Wednesday for vandalizing the Dutch Consulate in Medan during a protest against the Dutch anti-Islamic film Fitna.

The police had also impounded dozens of motorcycles left behind by the students during a chase after they resorted to anarchy.

The students, from various universities, were chased and nabbed a few moments after they set fire to a Dutch flag and the entrance to the building. The students then shattered several glass panes with rocks.

Because of the quick response by police, the students failed to create more damage to the consulate office.

The students belong to the Association of Islamic Students and were responding to the film Fitna, by the leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, Geert Wilder, saying it was anti-Islamic.

They demanded the Dutch government apologize as well as mete out stern punishment against Wilder.

The protest, which lasted almost an hour, failed to draw the attention of consulate staff, fueling anger among the students.

Chief of the readiness command unit at Medan city police Comr. Iwan Setiawan said police held and questioned the 22 students involved in vandalizing the Dutch Consulate.

Iwan said the students had been issued a rally permit by the police.

"Despite the issuance of a rally permit, we will take stern action against those who commit anarchy," Iwan told the media at the scene of the incident Wednesday.

The Dutch Consulate has not issued an official statement over the incident.

In Jakarta, a Muslim organization called for a boycott of Dutch products Wednesday to protest against the film, which links Islam to violence.

The Indonesian Ulema Council said the boycott call was not in the form of a fatwa, or formal ruling, but rather an informal appeal not to buy Dutch goods.

"We are urging people to boycott Dutch products because of the film," the body's chairman, Ma'ruf Amien, told Associated Press.

It is unclear to what extent the call will be heeded, if at all. Even the council's fatwas, which themselves have no legal weight, attract little attention and are ignored by most Indonesians.

The film intersperses scenes of recent terror attacks by Muslim extremists with versus from the Koran, Islam's holy book. It ends with an appeal for Muslims to rip out sections of the book it claims encourage violence.

Before the film's release, the Dutch government warned it could spark protests and product boycotts in Muslim nations like those that occurred following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad two years ago.

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