Armed Forces members 'involved in abductions'

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto has acknowledged rumors that some members of the military were involved in the abduction of scores of political activists over the past year.

"ABRI has identified several of its personnel who were allegedly involved in the kidnapping of activists," Wiranto told reporters in a media conference at ABRI's Merdeka Barat headquarters yesterday.

"They have acted beyond their authority," he said in a briefing during which he took no questions. He did not name the soldiers or disclose their rank or unit.

"ABRI is now cooperating with the National Commission on Human Rights to try to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of these activists," he said.

Pressure has mounted on ABRI to speed up its investigation of the kidnappings after reports claiming that its members were responsible for the abduction of dozens of missing activists, most of whom disappeared in the run up to the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly in March.

Some of those missing have since reappeared. One by one they have come forward to tell of their ordeals. In each case the activists were made to suffer practices often used by the military to extract confessions.

Wiranto said ABRI had collected data and information from the activists who had returned home.

"We are also cooperating with the rights commission and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in our investigation," he said.

"Our investigators have visited places which are said to have been used to imprison the activists," he added.

Kontras asked the International Commission for the Red Cross to intervene after it accused the military of dragging its feet in the investigation.

Only nine of the missing activists have returned home. Kontras believes that 14 others are still missing.

Four of the returned activists who went public with their ordeals said they had done so in spite of being threatened by their abductors with death if they did so.

Wiranto also said that ABRI had not yet received any formal complaint of rape or other forms of sexual assault which were reportedly rampant during the May riots in Jakarta.

"ABRI investigators have visited people said to have been raped but none admitted that they had been sexually violated or that they had told anybody this had been the case," he said.

ABRI gathered data from 20 hospitals in the city which received victims of the riots which took place between May. 13 and May 16.

"None of the 632 victims admitted to the 20 hospitals had suffered a sexual assault," he said.

"Twelve of the admissions died, 87 others were hospitalized, while the remaining 533 had suffered only minor injuries and were discharged following treatment," he said.

Wiranto said that ABRI had not found any evidence that the riots were provoked by an organized group, as some people have claimed.

"ABRI does not have enough evidence to confirm that last month's riots were provoked by any organized group," he said. (imn)