Govt cannot wash its hands of missing people

The fate of several missing people, most of whom are government critics and student activists, remains a mystery, even though some disappeared a year ago. Corporate lawyer and human rights activist Mulya Lubis shares his view on what should be done.

JAKARTA (JP): Reports of missing people are nothing new in our history. Since its infancy, the republic has been rife with stories about people who are missing, killed, imprisoned or even kidnapped.

The fate of a few of these people eventually came to light, such as Amir Sjarifudin, an independence fighter who was reportedly kidnapped and killed. But the circumstances of his death are still cloaked in mystery.

In the mid-1960s, an untold number of people reportedly disappeared due to the ideological disputes which surfaced in the turmoil after Sukarno's downfall. No definitive figures exist on the number who were killed or went missing.

From a human rights viewpoint, however, disappearances of people caught in ideological disputes and a power struggle should never happen.

A criminal suspect must be tried and punished. He must not be exempted from trial or allowed to disappear into the woodwork. The human rights perspective argues that "no circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal political instability or any public emergency, may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances" (Article 7 of the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances).

But tales of missing people persist. The "mysterious killings" of the early 1980s, with reported deaths of many hoodlums, remain fresh in our memories.

There were also the Tanjung Priok and Lampung incidents, in which many were reported missing and their whereabouts remain unknown to this day.

In more recent times, when the Jakarta headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) was attacked on July 27, 1996, many were also reported missing, spirited away to God knows where.

Now, names of students activists and prodemocracy campaigners rank among those who have disappeared in mysterious circumstances in recent months.

As usual, no party has claimed responsibility. This is because any acknowledgement of responsibility would wipe away the mystery which is created, namely that missing people are clumped under the nebulous but pivotal term of the "missing". Thus, they cannot be identified as "forced disappearances", a category of crime condemned by international human rights institutions and the United Nations.

Among those who reacted to the reports was the commander of the Diponegoro Military Command of Central Java, who angrily dismissed suggestions that security agents may have had a role in the disappearances.

His attitude is understandable; Article 1 of the UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances stipulates that "no state shall practice, permit or tolerate enforced disappearances".

Hence, the state assumes heavy responsibilities and obligations because it can neither cause people to disappear nor tolerate disappearances.

It follows that it is the duty of the state and its apparatuses to guarantee the safety of all citizens, and also to free the people from the forbidding possibility of disappearing or being forced to disappear.

In a state based on law, it is an absolute necessity that all citizens and residents live without the threat of going missing or having to live in hiding.

Which does not in any way mean that people are untouchable and unpunishable by the law for their criminal offenses. Instead, it means that a court of law would fairly and legally try and punish them. This is the essence of a law-upholding state.

Thus, the state must do its utmost to maintain security and order. In the event of reports of missing people, the state and its apparatuses, civilian and military, have the obligation to look for the missing people and punish those responsible.

It follows that if any members of the state apparatus made (dader) or helped to make (mede dader) people disappear, they must be held legally accountable for their actions.

No lawful state can simply wash its hands of the matter by declaring its apparatuses are not involved.

It must be realized that the foundation of a law-upholding state is the responsibility the state assumes over the safety and security of its citizens and residents.

Unless cases of missing people are handled seriously, people will lose faith in the integrity of a state which professes to champion the law.