Andi believes fellow activists already dead

Andi believes fellow activists already dead

JAKARTA (JP): Political activist Andi Arief has attracted
public attention by announcing that he no longer believes 14
fellow activists who disappeared in 1998 are still alive.

"I am sure that they died a long time ago. I have no proof of
this, I just want those who killed them to get what they
deserve," Andi told The Jakarta Post last Monday.

Andi claims he was kidnapped by members of the Army's Special
Force (Kopassus) on March 28, 1998, in front of a shop-house
owned by his brother on Jl. Kiai Maja in Bandar Lampung. He was
later found to be in police custody and was released.

Andi talked about his alleged kidnapping, the 1998 Tanah
Tinggi apartment blast in Central Jakarta, his treatment while in
police custody and his whereabouts at the time of Democratic
People's Party (PRD) chief Budiman Sudjatmiko's arrest.

"Unlike what is believed, I was not lost somewhere in
Indonesia. I was here during Budiman's arrest," he said.

"I went to Yogya (Yogyakarta) soon after the July 27, 1996
incident. I knew they (the police) were looking for me in
Jakarta, so I fled to Yogyakarta.

"Nobody was ready to back me up then. I had to defend my
party. The police came looking for me in Yogyakarta. By then, I
was in Cilegon, West Java. I stayed there for about six months."

State and military leaders of the New Order administration had
branded Budiman and his friends communists because of their
belief in social democracy. They were accused of instigating
riots on July 27, 1996 near the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.

Budiman was arrested three weeks later. He was serving a 13-
year jail term when he was granted amnesty on Dec. 23 last year
by President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Andi said that after he was kidnapped, National Police
detectives handed his arrest warrant to his family one month
later on April 23, 1998. The warrant stated that Andi had been
detained at the National Police Headquarters since March 29,
1998.

Andi insists that his kidnappers handed him over to National
Police Headquarters on April 14, 1998.

When he refused to sign the arrest warrant, Andi says the
police deprived him of food for seven days.

"I was isolated. Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi (then National Police
chief of detectives and currently city police chief) says he
saved me. But who knows who was really responsible for each day I
spent in a National Police cell?"

"I remember that my kidnappers transferred me to some
institution before handing me over to the National Police ... it
could have been the city military command or the Armed Forces
Intelligence Body (BIA)," he said.

Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi earlier said that "fixing" the date on
Andi's 1998 arrest warrant was for "Andi's benefit".

"I am ready to be questioned over the kidnapping anytime. The
date on the arrest warrant saved Andi's life," Nurfaizi said.

"The police were then part of the Indonesian Armed Forces
(ABRI). We were under oath to always follow what the leader
said," Nurfaizi said.

"I still say that Andi was arrested because the police needed
to question him about his possible involvement in a bomb blast in
a Tanah Tinggi apartment in Central Jakarta in 1998," he said.

A homemade bomb exploded at a low-cost Tanah Tinggi apartment
block on Jan. 18, 1998. One suspect was arrested and two other
people were listed as wanted for questioning.

One of them, Cony, was thought to be an alias of Andi, who is
chairman of the Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy
(SMID), one of PRD's affiliates.

Andi acknowledges that he was there when the explosion
occurred.

"I was there when it happened. I had just returned from
Cilegon. I was doing my Ashar prayer ... I was late. Then the
blast occurred," Andi said.

"I had nothing to do with the blast, but I was in its midst,"
Andi said.

Andi said his kidnappers focused their questions on PRD's
ideology and its political views.

"The kidnappers did not want any opposition figures like Amien
(Rais, the People's Consultative Assembly Speaker), Mega (Vice
President Megawati Soekarnoputri) and Gus Dur (President
Abdurrahman Wahid) to unite. They felt it could endanger them,"
Andi said.

"Until the whereabouts of the 14 activists are made known,
this kidnapping issue should not be allowed to die out." (ylt)