Enforced disappearances in Indonesia: Never again

Enforced disappearances in Indonesia: Never again

Mugiyanto
Chairman
Indonesian Association of Families
of Missing Persons
(IKOHI)
Jakarta

Enforced or involuntary disappearances constitute a violation
of the rules of international law that guarantee the right to
recognition as an individual before the law, the individual's
right to liberty and security and the right not to be subjected
to torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or
punishment. Thus reads Article 1 of the United Nations
Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances.

Enforced or involuntary disappearances "also violates or
constitutes a grave threat to the right to life," the article
states.

In the last week of May every year, various community groups
and groups of victims and families of those subjected to enforced
disappearances from various countries, particularly from Latin
America, Asia and Africa, observe the International Week of
Disappearances. The Indonesian Association of Families of Victims
of Enforced Disappearances (IKOHI) and the Commission for Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) are two of these
groups.

A state policy of "disappearing" people was firstly known to
bepracticed by Adolf Hitler, when he issued a decree in 1941
ordering that anyone "endangering German security" in areas
controlled by the Nazi government be arrested and taken secretly
to Germany, where they were to disappear without a trace.

This policy was later adopted as a systematic state policy
prevailing in South America, particularly in Guatemala and
Brazil, from the late 1960s up to the early 1970s. The term
"enforced or involuntary disappearances" was first coined by a
non-governmental organization in Latin America.

In Indonesia, this phenomenon did not come to public attention
until the latter stages of Soeharto's New Order regime, a period
marked by a number of cases in which pro-democracy activists were
subjected to enforced disappearances or were kidnapped by the
state apparatus, because they were politically against the ruling
regime.

Kontras has documented that 14 people are still missing today.
Their enforced disappearances took place in 1997/1998 against the
backdrop of three political settings: The 1997 general elections
campaigning period, the pre-1998 general session of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the post-1998 general session of
the Assembly. One of these missing people is Wiji Thukul, a poet
whose work is said to be critical of the ruling regime.

Five years have passed since these enforced disappearances
took place. Regimes have changed. Families of the victims have
made many attempts to find out the whereabouts of their loved
ones. They have visited many places, relevant government agencies
and international institutions abroad, but to little avail.

The state must be held accountable for these heinous crimes,
must stop such crimes and prevent them from happening again.
These three points constitute the demands made by IKOHI, Kontras
and other Indonesian rights activists over the past five years.

The non-recurrence of enforced disappearances can be
guaranteed only if the state can account for previous cases, so
the state must investigate these past cases.

The legal process will reveal the truth behind these cases so
that the perpetrators, the incidents themselves and the victims,
including their current and their welfare, will come to light.

If the investigations, interrogations and fair prosecution
take place, the state would admit to having committed serious
human rights violations.

The state's next obligation will be to fulfill the rights of
the victims.

The state must restore the victims' rights or provide
rehabilitation and compensation. This reparation is compulsory on
the part of the state and must be conducted the moment the
process of truth-seeking and prosecution takes place.

Failure to thoroughly settle the crime of enforced
disappearances will only lead to the recurrence of similar
incidents. In Indonesia, this fear has become a reality. The
failure to thoroughly settle the cases of enforced disappearances
in 1997/1998 has led to continued disappearances.

It is of vital importance that all segments of the civilian
community should devote their attention to enforced
disappearances, especially considering that the government, in
its effort to fight terrorism, has promulgated the Law on
Terrorism. Article 26 of this law stipulates that an investigator
can detain people on the basis of intelligence, and that an
interrogation conducted by the chairman and deputy chairman of a
district court can be held behind closed doors. Some circles have
dubbed these articles as "articles of kidnapping".

The current political process is highly conducive to enforced
disappearances, as the dominant position of the military over
civilian political authorities have made it possible for the
military to act freely without having to heed critical voices in
society. The government policy regarding Aceh is a concrete
example.

Then, prior to the 2004 general elections, the political elite
and political parties alike would be contesting one another -- a
situation highly prone to political violence. In this context,
enforced disappearances is very likely become one of the
manifestations of this violence.

It is time that we all called out loud, like the relatives of
enforced disappearances elsewhere: Nunca mas! Never again!

The writer is a survivor of the 1998 kidnapping of pro-
democracy activists.