Armed Forces members 'involved in abductions'

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)