Armed Forces members 'involved in abductions'<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security\/Armed Forces
\n(ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto has acknowledged rumors that some
\nmembers of the military were involved in the abduction of scores
\nof political activists over the past year.<\/p>\n
\"ABRI has identified several of its personnel who were
\nallegedly involved in the kidnapping of activists,\" Wiranto told
\nreporters in a media conference at ABRI's Merdeka Barat
\nheadquarters yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"They have acted beyond their authority,\" he said in a
\nbriefing during which he took no questions. He did not name the
\nsoldiers or disclose their rank or unit.<\/p>\n
\"ABRI is now cooperating with the National Commission on Human
\nRights to try to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of
\nthese activists,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Pressure has mounted on ABRI to speed up its investigation of
\nthe kidnappings after reports claiming that its members were
\nresponsible for the abduction of dozens of missing activists,
\nmost of whom disappeared in the run up to the general session of
\nthe People's Consultative Assembly in March.<\/p>\n
Some of those missing have since reappeared. One by one they
\nhave come forward to tell of their ordeals. In each case the
\nactivists were made to suffer practices often used by the
\nmilitary to extract confessions.<\/p>\n
Wiranto said ABRI had collected data and information from the
\nactivists who had returned home.<\/p>\n
\"We are also cooperating with the rights commission and the
\nCommission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras)
\nin our investigation,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Our investigators have visited places which are said to have
\nbeen used to imprison the activists,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Kontras asked the International Commission for the Red Cross
\nto intervene after it accused the military of dragging its feet
\nin the investigation.<\/p>\n
Only nine of the missing activists have returned home. Kontras
\nbelieves that 14 others are still missing.<\/p>\n
Four of the returned activists who went public with their
\nordeals said they had done so in spite of being threatened by
\ntheir abductors with death if they did so.<\/p>\n
Wiranto also said that ABRI had not yet received any formal
\ncomplaint of rape or other forms of sexual assault which were
\nreportedly rampant during the May riots in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"ABRI investigators have visited people said to have been
\nraped but none admitted that they had been sexually violated or
\nthat they had told anybody this had been the case,\" he said.<\/p>\n
ABRI gathered data from 20 hospitals in the city which
\nreceived victims of the riots which took place between May. 13
\nand May 16.<\/p>\n
\"None of the 632 victims admitted to the 20 hospitals had
\nsuffered a sexual assault,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"Twelve of the admissions died, 87 others were hospitalized,
\nwhile the remaining 533 had suffered only minor injuries and were
\ndischarged following treatment,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Wiranto said that ABRI had not found any evidence that the
\nriots were provoked by an organized group, as some people have
\nclaimed.<\/p>\n
\"ABRI does not have enough evidence to confirm that last
\nmonth's riots were provoked by any organized group,\" he said.
\n(imn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/armed-forces-members-involved-in-abductions-1447893297",
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