21 ABRI members quizzed in missing persons probe
21 ABRI members quizzed in missing persons probe
JAKARTA (JP): National Military Police have questioned 21
police and military officers as part of their ongoing
investigation into the disappearance of a number of political
activists, an official said yesterday.
"We're working on the case," National Military Police
Commander Maj. Gen. Syamsu Djalal said.
"We've also been in contact with other senior officials,
including Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie
Sjamsoeddin and Lt. Col. Lubis of the Jakarta Police," Syamsu
told reporters after a meeting with families of the missing
activists.
Lubis was reportedly the officer who signed a warrant for the
detention of Andi Arief, chairman of the Indonesian Student
Solidarity for Democracy (SMID), at the city police headquarters.
Accompanied by representatives of the Commission for Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the family members
went to the Military Police Headquarters to ask about the latest
developments in the investigation.
Syamsu strongly denied accusations that he and the rest of the
fact-finding team were purposely working slowly on the case.
"We have put our best effort into the case, but these things
take time. It's not a simple matter.
"You have to remember that these events happened quite a long
time ago, so we must hope that the investigation runs smoothly.
We are doing the best we can," he said.
Syamsu also disclosed yesterday that the current members of
the fact-finding team would soon be replaced, but said a decree
would first have to be issued by the Minister of Defense and
Security/Armed Forces Commander before any changes could be made.
He refused to say who the new members of the fact-findings
team would be, but alluded jokingly to the fact that he himself
was now old enough to retire.
The current team assigned to investigate the case includes
Syamsu, the National Police Assistant for Security and Social
Order and the Armed Forces Assistant for Intelligence.
Relatives of the missing activists also met with
representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) on Thursday in a bid to press the authorities into
conducting a more thorough investigation into the matter.
They also recently met with the National Commission on Human
Rights, but declined a chance to discuss the case with members of
the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction in the House of Representatives
last week.
The delegation who met with Syamsu included relatives of
Suyat, Bimo Petrus Anugrah, Noval Alkatiri, Yani Avri, Leonardus
"Gilang" Nugroho Iskandar, Dedy Hamdun and several other missing
persons.
Noval, a businessman, and Yani, a bus driver, went missing
during last year's general election campaign.
Gilang, a renowned street singer in Surakarta and nearby
towns, was found dead in a forest near Magetan, East Java, on May
23, after being missing for two days.
Meanwhile, representatives of Juanda University in Bogor met
with National Police Detectives Commander Brig. Gen. Da'i
Bachtiar to demand that all charges brought against three
students in relation to the death of a police officer in Bogor,
West Java, last month be dropped.
The university rector and Legal Aid Foundation representatives
also demanded that police clear the university's name.
"We're currently trying to find out which officers assaulted
the three students when they were in detention. We will give the
matter some further serious consideration," Da'i said.
The police have accused the three students of beating Second
Lt. Dadang Rusmana to death during a demonstration at the campus
on May 9. Dadang was head of the Bogor police intelligence unit.
However, the police accusations have caused a huge controversy
because Yuli Budiningsih, the forensics expert who performed the
autopsy on the officer's body, publicly insists that Dadang died
of a heart attack. (edt)