Release International

Students from the Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary face imminent eviction from a campsite where they took refuge last year after a violent raid on their campus.

Hundreds of students have been living in 11 large tents and studying in the open air at the camping ground in East Jakarta for more than a year. They were forced out of their premises in Kampung Pulo, Jakarta, in July 2008 when a mob armed with sharpened bamboo broke in, demanding the college's closure (Prayer Alert, September 2, 2008).

For three months, the Jakarta provincial government agreed to pay the college's camping fees – but payments stopped when the college rejected its offer of new premises in Jonggol, West Java, about 30 miles away from the old site. Rev Matheus Mangentang, rector of the Arastamar seminary, refused to move to Jonggol in the belief that obtaining a permit to establish a college there would have been 'extremely difficult'.

Campsite officials recently presented the college with a bill for about £171,000 and, at the time of writing, were demanding that the 760 students currently at the site should leave by November 1. Students have been without water and electricity at the campsite for nearly a month – because officials cut off these facilities in protest at non-payment of fees. Sources for Compass Direct news agency say that the students have continued to study enthusiastically.

Some 550 other Arastamar students have also been staying in unsuitable accommodation – some of them at a near-derelict former mayor's office in West Jakarta. Many are said to be in poor health because of their unsanitary, overcrowded living conditions. Compass Direct reports that the college could be forced to close unless it can find new premises soon. Rev Mangentang insists the college should be allowed to return to Kampung Pulo.

(Source: Compass Direct)

• Thank God for the commitment and courage of Arastamar students and staff.
• Pray that the college will soon be re-established in good accommodation.

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