A 12-year-old, identified by his initials FNM, from Garut, West Java, tragically lost his life on Sunday after allegedly getting stabbed by a classmate during a violent fight.
According to the Cikajang District Police in Garut, the sixth grader was fighting with a classmate, identified at, HKM, after school on Saturday because HKM had accused FNM of stealing his book. The fight escalated from playground fisticuffs to violent assault after HKM took out a pair of scissors to attack the latter.
“So HKM had a book missing, and then the next day (Saturday) the missing book reappeared under FNM’s desk. After school, HKM accused FNM of stealing the book and so they fought,” Cikajang District Police Chief Cecep Bambang told Detik today.
HKM allegedly used the scissors to stab FNM in the head and the back. FNM was immediately taken to Garut Hospital and placed in intensive care, but passed away on Sunday afternoon.
Curiously, the police said nobody from either FNM or HKM’s families reported the incident to them right away, and that they began investigations only after word about the boys’ fatal fight spread.
No charges have been filed in this case. Under Indonesia’s KUHP (Penal Code), murder is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, but minors may only have to serve a fraction of that.
In Indonesia, there’s a troubling culture of violence among schoolchildren, the worst of which culminates in tawuran (mass brawling). Over the past five years, there were over 130 student deaths from more than 800 brawls just in and around Jakarta.
Last year, Al Jazeera released a documentary on the culture of tawuran in Indonesia, in which many of the children say that killing each other is a rite of passage to becoming a man.
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