Missing activist found in the Philippines<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces (ABRI) spokesman Maj. Gen.
\nSyamsul Ma'arif said one of 12 activists still reported missing,
\nHerman Hendrawan, has been found in the southern province of
\nDavao in the neighboring Philippines.<\/p>\n
\"He is now staying in the house of the Indonesian consulate-
\ngeneral in Davao,\" Syamsul told reporters yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"He told officials at the consulate that he will return to
\nIndonesia, but asked for some time to calm himself before doing
\nso,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Syamsul, the person who claimed to be Herman came
\nto the consulate on Monday after residing in the town, the
\nlargest commercial town on Mindanao island, for two months. Davao
\nis about 600 kilometers north of Manado, the capital of North
\nSulawesi.<\/p>\n
However the consulate-general has yet to confirm whether the
\nperson is who he said he is.<\/p>\n
\"We cannot confirm that he is really Herman Hendrawan because
\nhe was not carrying any identification,\" head of Consular and
\nEconomic Affairs in Davao Taufan Adityawarman, was quoted by
\nAntara as saying yesterday.<\/p>\n
Munir from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
\nViolence (Kontras) made a separate effort to confirm the report
\nbut also failed to establish whether the man in the Davao
\nconsulate was the person they had been trying to locate.<\/p>\n
Munir told a media conference he had spoken to Hendrawan on
\nthe phone yesterday but said the person, although he had the same
\nname, claimed he was a \"different Herman Hendrawan.\"<\/p>\n
\"I am a kidnap victim but not the one you're looking for,\"
\nMunir quoted Hendrawan as saying. \"Please don't bother me.\"<\/p>\n
Munir said the Hendrawan in Davao claimed he was a student at
\nSiliwangi University in Tasikmalaya, West Java, while the missing
\nHendrawan on Kontras' list was a student at Airlangga University
\nin Surabaya, East Java.<\/p>\n
Munir said the \"real\" Herman Hendrawan, 28, was abducted near
\nthe Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation office in Central Jakarta on
\nMarch 12, 1998, after proclaiming the establishment of the
\nNational Committee for Democratic Struggle (KNPD) at the office.<\/p>\n
Munir told The Jakarta Post late yesterday that he had sent a
\ntwo-member team to Davao to check if the person was the Herman
\nthey have been seeking.<\/p>\n
\"We contacted the consulate and spoke to the person claiming
\nto be Herman Hendrawan. I am not sure that he is the Herman
\nHendrawan who we have been looking for,\" Munir told a media
\nconference.<\/p>\n
Munir said the person spoke with a Sundanese accent, not
\nJavanese like the Herman who they were seeking.<\/p>\n
\"Although (the missing) Herman is from Bangka island (South
\nSumatra), he speaks with a Javanese accent,\" Munir said, adding
\nthat he knew Herman well.<\/p>\n
Munir said that Feisol Reza and Herman's girlfriend, both of
\nwhom spoke to the man in Davao by telephone yesterday, also
\ndoubted that he was the Herman Hendrawan who they knew.<\/p>\n
Feisol is Herman's colleague and was abducted in March but
\nreappeared in April.<\/p>\n
\"We have faxed Herman's photograph to the consulate-general
\noffice and they only said that the person bore a 'resemblance' to
\n(Herman Hendrawan),\" Munir said.<\/p>\n
Bodies<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Antara reported that villagers of Rantau Kijang in
\nthe Lampung Utara regency subdistrict of Blambangan Umpu found a
\ntotal of 14 decaying human bodies adrift in the Way Umpu river
\n300 kilometers northwest of Bandarlampung, the provincial
\ncapital.<\/p>\n
The findings, which occurred between July 6 and July 18,
\nattracted the attention of Bandarlampung legal aid office and
\nKontras. The two organizations sent a delegation to the site
\nbecause of suspicions that the bodies could have been those of
\nthe missing activists.<\/p>\n
But Munir said yesterday that Kontras had been unable to
\nconclude if the bodies were those of the missing activists and
\nurged the military police to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, National Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar
\ndenied the discovery of the bodies.<\/p>\n
\"We have checked with Lampung Utara Police Precinct and based
\non the report, only one body was found this month (July), on July
\n18 to be exact.<\/p>\n
\"The body was an unidentified male, aged between 30 and 35
\nyears of age, with light brown skin, 170 centimeters tall and
\nweighing about 65 kilograms. The body had begun to decompose when
\nit was found,\" Da'i said. (byg\/imn\/aan\/edt)<\/p>",
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