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