Counting the missing

The National Commission on Human Rights is once again being challenged to spell out the truth and provide proof of the correctness of its findings. The public spotlight is now focused on the results of investigations conducted by the commission's fact finding team regarding the number of victims of the July 27 riots.

According to those findings five people were killed and 74 are missing. These findings diverge from those made public by the Armed Forces, which said four people were killed, and made no mention of missing persons or those who did not return home.

President Soeharto, as quoted by State Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono, has asked the commission to provide proof of the correctness of its findings with names, addresses, dates and other relevant data.

We regard the President's request as of the greatest importance. Unless properly explained, the loss of even one life brings problems. We hope the commission will be able to comply so that everything will become transparent. If the commission's findings should be clearly proven to be correct, the government and the Armed Forces will publicly accept those findings.

Pending a further announcement from the commission regarding those findings we should all maintain our mutual trust and our mutual respect. It would be helpful if the findings of both sides could prove to be mutually sustaining so that the combined findings may give an accurate picture of the number of victims.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta