Kontras responds

Kontras responds

From Media Indonesia

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) would like to thank the concern and sympathy for our work that was expressed in Mr. Donald Panjaitan's letter in The Jakarta Post on Sept. 27, 2001. Such concern and sympathy really lends substance to our lives.

Unfortunately, we must refute his statement that we have ignored human rights violations by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Free Papua Organization (OPM). When making public the result of our investigation, we reported human rights violations by GAM. In our press release of Aug. 22, 2001, we explained that the monitoring conducted between January and August 2001 came up with 20 cases of human right violations involving GAM, which claimed 44 lives.

Following the murder of Dayan Dawood, the rector of Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, we issued on Sept. 7, 2001 a press release expressing our condolences on and harsh criticism of the murder.

We are yet to confirm that Dayan Dawood was murdered by GAM, as Mr. Panjaitan has alleged, because violence in Aceh is committed not only by the Indonesian Military/Police and GAM but also by unidentified armed groups, which may be affiliated to either the Indonesian Military/Police or GAM.

MUNAMAN

Executive Board Coordinator

Kontras

Jakarta