Police doubtful about the agrarian activist kidnapping<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): National Police Headquarters questioned on
\nMonday the truth behind the testimonies of four agrarian
\nactivists who had returned home safely after going missing for 12
\ndays.<\/p>\n
Head of the National Police Information Department Sr. Supt.
\nSaleh Saaf said the police doubted that the four activists had
\nreally been kidnapped.<\/p>\n
\"That's a dagelan (comedy),\" Saleh told reporters in his
\noffice.<\/p>\n
Saleh said that if an abduction really occurred, it was
\nunlikely that kidnappers would then just let the activists go.<\/p>\n
\"I'm sure that this is a cheap story,\" Saleh said, while
\nciting indications that the abduction of the four activists had
\nbeen conducted to smear the police's image.<\/p>\n
Saleh did not accuse the four Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA)
\nactivists -- Anton Sulton, 26, Idham Kurniawan, 24, Usep
\nSetiawan, 28, and Muh. Hafiz Asdam, 23 -- of having disappeared
\non their own will.<\/p>\n
But it's impossible that the abduction was carried out by
\nprofessionals, Saleh said.<\/p>\n
\"We're still looking for the mastermind (of the abduction),\"
\nSaleh added.<\/p>\n
The four activists went missing on Aug. 14 after staging a
\nhunger strike at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and
\nHouse of Representatives (DPR) compound during the Assembly's 12-
\nday Annual Session. They returned home separately on Aug. 27.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the four activists told their stories about the
\nalleged abduction.<\/p>\n
In tears, the activists said that they had been abducted
\nshortly after having dinner at the basement of the Sogo shopping
\ncenter on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
After being kept for several days in small rooms in an area
\nunknown by the activists, they were then given airline tickets to
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) claimed that
\nthe kidnapping was possibly ordered by conglomerates who did not
\nwant their land reclaimed. The commission demanded that the
\npolice find the party who had ordered the kidnapping.<\/p>\n
The Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
\n(Kontras) demanded that the police rehabilitate the four
\nactivists' whose physical and emotional conditions were affected
\nby the trauma of the alleged abduction.<\/p>\n
Saleh said the police had summoned the four activists to the
\npolice headquarters to testify as witnesses.<\/p>\n
\"But they have declined to come so far. But, it's their right
\nnot to come,\" Saleh said. (jaw)<\/p>",
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