F

oreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Monday he deplored the arrests and alleged torture of four Indonesian students in Cairo, but made no hint whether the government would ask Egypt for an apology and to prosecute the perpetrators.

"We have heard the students were not given their basic rights as suspects while being interrogated," he told reporters after opening a workshop on the Indonesian presidential election at the Sheraton Hotel in Tangerang, Banten. "We want to make sure such an incident does not happen again."

The minister acknowledged, however, that Egypt has not abolished its draconian emergency laws, calling Indonesian students there to be more careful in engaging in any activities. "The political system is different there. The students should be careful...their duty is to study well," he said.

Al-Azhar University students Faturrahman, Arzil, Ahmad Yunus and Tasrih Sugandi were detained for three days after being arrested for alleged involvement in an extremist network last week. They were reportedly beaten and repeatedly given electric shocks during interrogation.

They said they were traumatized and felt insecure about continuing their studies. "My brother is afraid of picking up the telephone and planned to move out, while the other two fi rst year students are so afraid that they have planned to return to Indonesia," Roudhatul Firdaus, Fathurrahman's brother, was quoted by Antara news agency.

Hassan said he would depart for Egypt for the Non-Aligned Movement Summit later this month and would raise the issue when meeting with his Egyptian counterpart. The Egyptian government, he said, was currently looking into the case and had not yet responded to the protest note sent by Indonesia's diplomatic mission in Cairo.

Egypt's Ambassador to Indonesia Ahmed M. El Kewaisny said he had not received an official explanation from Cairo on the incident. "I do not know what happened exactly," he told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

Nevertheless, Kewaisny said a similar incident would not happen again in the future and those responsible for the alleged torture, if confirmed, would be brought to justice.

"For 200 years we have received Indonesian students at Al-Azhar University.They are our brothers," he said, adding the Egyptian government never had problems with them before. He also advised Indonesian students to avoid activities outside of campus, telling them: "Egypt is not Indonesia."