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)