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An
22-year-old Indonesian man has died after setting himself on fire near the
presidential palace, police said on Sunday, in what is believed to be the
country’s first self-immolation protest.
The man,
identified as student Sondang Hutagalung, died on Saturday after he was taken
to hospital with 98 percent burns, Jakarta police spokesman Baharudin Djafar
told AFP.
“He died
yesterday from a sizeable percentage of burns on his body after setting himself
on fire. We still don’t know what caused him to immolate himself,” he said.
Local media
reported that Hutagalung had doused himself in petrol and torched himself near
the state palace on Wednesday before running towards a billboard bearing the
photograph of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Witnesses
told the Jakarta Globe newspaper he had shouted anti-government messages.
But Djafar
said it was “not possible” to say he was protesting against the government or
the president.
“He was the
perpetrator as well as the victim. Only he had the answer — we couldn’t guess
his motive,” he said.
“But we
hope nobody will repeat such an act. If you’re unhappy with anything, you may
protest but please do so without hurting yourself and others.”
Presidential
adviser Daniel Sparingga said on Thursday that Yudhoyono had been informed of
the incident and “expressed his sympathy and concern.”
Protests
are common in Indonesia but the self-immolation is believed to be the first of
its kind in the world’s third-largest democracy of 240 million people.
Yudhoyono’s
popularity rankings have slumped despite strong economic growth, amid
corruption and incompetence across all levels of the state. He was sworn in at
the start of his second five-year term on Oct. 20, 2009.
The first
Indonesian president to be directly elected after decades of authoritarianism,
Yudhoyono has won two clear mandates with promises of tough action on
corruption, but is seen as too weak and indecisive to take on powerful vested
interests.
Agence France-Presse
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