Families of missing demand justice
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
More than five years after the loss of their loved ones, families of activists who went missing in 1997 and 1998 met here Saturday to renew their call for the government to bring those responsible to justice.
At least 12 pro-democracy activists have been missing since late 1997 and early 1998, with police apparently having giving up trying to find out what happened to them.
Their families, who are still in the dark over what really happened to their missing husbands and sons, also condemned the government for not doing much to help them.
Payan Siahaan, the father of Ucok Aris Munandar, one of the missing persons, said the government must know who the masterminds and perpetrators of the kidnappings were, but it had no political will to arrest and prosecute the abductors.
"The government could have summoned the military officers who were in charge of security in the capital on the day of my son's disappearance," he told a seminar to mark International Day of the Disappeared here on Saturday.
He said his son was an ordinary student at the Perbanas college before he disappeared during the May riots.
Tuti Kotto, the mother of another missing person, Yani Afri, said she had tried every possible avenue to find out what had befallen her son and see the perpetrators being brought to justice.
"I have stated my case to the National Commission on Human Rights, the House of Representatives and the Military Police, but all for naught," she said.
She lamented the fact that no investigation had been undertaken even though her son was reportedly seen at the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) headquarters.
Yani, a public minivan driver, was kidnapped on May 7, 1997, and has been missing ever since. Prior to his kidnapping, he was an active supporter of President Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).
As the end of the authoritarian regime of former president Soeharto neared, certain quarters in the military establishment embarked on a crackdown against the pro-democracy movement. This resulted in the kidnapping of pro-democracy and student activists, many of whom are still missing.
Those who managed to survive their abductions told of physical and psychological torture during their detention in various covert military compounds.
A report from the Commission on the Victims of Violence and Missing Persons (Kontras) says that of all the abductions that took place between the purge of the communist movement in 1965 and June 2002, a total of 1,266 people are still missing.
Ori Rachman, a representative of Kontras, said that in order for the facts surrounding the forced disappearances to be revealed, Komnas HAM as an independent rights body needed to set up a special investigating team.
"The establishment of such a team would be a giant step forward in the probe of the forced disappearances as so far these cases are still in limbo," he told the seminar.
Ori said that even Komnas HAM as the country's human rights watchdog did not seem to take the matter seriously.
"It pledged the setting up of an ad hoc team last year, but the plan never actually saw the light of day. It wouldn't surprise if during next year commemoration we still don't have an ad hoc team," he said.