Independent team needed to probe kidnapping case

JAKARTA (JP): Political observer Hermawan Sulistyo suggested on Thursday the government form an independent team to end the dispute between the police and four agrarian activists, who claim they were abducted by security personnel.

Speaking to reporters, Hermawan said such a team was needed to look for the truth since both parties had been giving conflicting statements to the public about the alleged kidnapping.

"If we want an independent investigation, the investigating team should be neither from police nor from the activists' colleagues," Hermawan said after attending a workshop on the media and the police's independence at Hotel Sahid Jaya.

He offered to be part of the team.

"Give me one week and it will be solved," Hermawan boasted, adding that it would not be hard to find out which party was telling the truth.

"I will find out who benefited the most from the (alleged) kidnapping," he added.

The four activists of the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) reportedly went missing for 12 days since Aug. 14 after members of the Jakarta Police put them into an ambulance at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) during MPR's 12-day Annual Session.

The activists' legal representatives have said the protesters were forced into the ambulance.

However, the police say they intended to take the activists to the hospital due to their weak condition after staging a hunger strike. They later claimed they dropped off the activists outside the General Elections Commission building.

On Aug. 27, the four appeared in Jakarta, saying their unknown kidnappers freed them from different cities in Java. They alleged the kidnappers gave them airline tickets to Jakarta.

A few days later, the police announced that they doubted the activists, namely Anton Sulton, 26, Idham Kurniawan, 24, Usep Setiawan, 28, and Muh. Hafiz Asdam, 23, had been kidnapped.

The police said the whole thing was a dagelan (joke).

The activists have ignored the Jakarta Police's summons for questioning, saying the police were part of the abduction.

On Wednesday, the activists filed suit against the Jakarta Police demanding the police pay Rp 4 billion (US$476,190) in compensation, including for medical expenses, and rehabilitate the activists' names by running apologies to them in a number of printed and broadcast media.

The activists are being represented by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Jakarta office of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) and the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI).

Also on Wednesday, legislator Hamdan Zoelva said the House of Representatives would summon the four activists and the police to clarify the matter.

Separately, Kontras executive Munir said on Thursday that he agreed with the House's plan to summon the two parties.

However, he regretted the statement made by legislator Dimyati Hartono of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), who said he agreed that it was unlikely the activists were kidnapped.

"Dimyati should have learned from (what happened in) the Philippines. There were more kidnapping cases in Cory Aquino's time than during (autocrat) Marcos' time due to the many political clashes," Munir said.

He said he had a sketch of a person who bought the airline tickets in Semarang, Central Java, which were later reportedly handed to the activists by the other alleged kidnappers.

Munir also refuted a police statement which stated the activists had not been kidnapped since they had kept communicating with people via their cellular phones.

"The kidnappers were smart. They used the activists' phones to communicate," Munir said. (jaw)