Andi believes fellow activists already dead<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Political activist Andi Arief has attracted
\npublic attention by announcing that he no longer believes 14
\nfellow activists who disappeared in 1998 are still alive.<\/p>\n
\"I am sure that they died a long time ago. I have no proof of
\nthis, I just want those who killed them to get what they
\ndeserve,\" Andi told The Jakarta Post last Monday.<\/p>\n
Andi claims he was kidnapped by members of the Army's Special
\nForce (Kopassus) on March 28, 1998, in front of a shop-house
\nowned by his brother on Jl. Kiai Maja in Bandar Lampung. He was
\nlater found to be in police custody and was released.<\/p>\n
Andi talked about his alleged kidnapping, the 1998 Tanah
\nTinggi apartment blast in Central Jakarta, his treatment while in
\npolice custody and his whereabouts at the time of Democratic
\nPeople's Party (PRD) chief Budiman Sudjatmiko's arrest.<\/p>\n
\"Unlike what is believed, I was not lost somewhere in
\nIndonesia. I was here during Budiman's arrest,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"I went to Yogya (Yogyakarta) soon after the July 27, 1996
\nincident. I knew they (the police) were looking for me in
\nJakarta, so I fled to Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Nobody was ready to back me up then. I had to defend my
\nparty. The police came looking for me in Yogyakarta. By then, I
\nwas in Cilegon, West Java. I stayed there for about six months.\"<\/p>\n
State and military leaders of the New Order administration had
\nbranded Budiman and his friends communists because of their
\nbelief in social democracy. They were accused of instigating
\nriots on July 27, 1996 near the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
\nheadquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Budiman was arrested three weeks later. He was serving a 13-
\nyear jail term when he was granted amnesty on Dec. 23 last year
\nby President Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
Andi said that after he was kidnapped, National Police
\ndetectives handed his arrest warrant to his family one month
\nlater on April 23, 1998. The warrant stated that Andi had been
\ndetained at the National Police Headquarters since March 29,
\n1998.<\/p>\n
Andi insists that his kidnappers handed him over to National
\nPolice Headquarters on April 14, 1998.<\/p>\n
When he refused to sign the arrest warrant, Andi says the
\npolice deprived him of food for seven days.<\/p>\n
\"I was isolated. Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi (then National Police
\nchief of detectives and currently city police chief) says he
\nsaved me. But who knows who was really responsible for each day I
\nspent in a National Police cell?\"<\/p>\n
\"I remember that my kidnappers transferred me to some
\ninstitution before handing me over to the National Police ... it
\ncould have been the city military command or the Armed Forces
\nIntelligence Body (BIA),\" he said.<\/p>\n
Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi earlier said that \"fixing\" the date on
\nAndi's 1998 arrest warrant was for \"Andi's benefit\".<\/p>\n
\"I am ready to be questioned over the kidnapping anytime. The
\ndate on the arrest warrant saved Andi's life,\" Nurfaizi said.<\/p>\n
\"The police were then part of the Indonesian Armed Forces
\n(ABRI). We were under oath to always follow what the leader
\nsaid,\" Nurfaizi said.<\/p>\n
\"I still say that Andi was arrested because the police needed
\nto question him about his possible involvement in a bomb blast in
\na Tanah Tinggi apartment in Central Jakarta in 1998,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A homemade bomb exploded at a low-cost Tanah Tinggi apartment
\nblock on Jan. 18, 1998. One suspect was arrested and two other
\npeople were listed as wanted for questioning.<\/p>\n
One of them, Cony, was thought to be an alias of Andi, who is
\nchairman of the Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy
\n(SMID), one of PRD's affiliates.<\/p>\n
Andi acknowledges that he was there when the explosion
\noccurred.<\/p>\n
\"I was there when it happened. I had just returned from
\nCilegon. I was doing my Ashar prayer ... I was late. Then the
\nblast occurred,\" Andi said.<\/p>\n
\"I had nothing to do with the blast, but I was in its midst,\"
\nAndi said.<\/p>\n
Andi said his kidnappers focused their questions on PRD's
\nideology and its political views.<\/p>\n
\"The kidnappers did not want any opposition figures like Amien
\n(Rais, the People's Consultative Assembly Speaker), Mega (Vice
\nPresident Megawati Soekarnoputri) and Gus Dur (President
\nAbdurrahman Wahid) to unite. They felt it could endanger them,\"
\nAndi said.<\/p>\n
\"Until the whereabouts of the 14 activists are made known,
\nthis kidnapping issue should not be allowed to die out.\" (ylt)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/andi-believes-fellow-activists-already-dead-1447893297",
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