Missing activist found in the Philippines

Missing activist found in the Philippines

JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces (ABRI) spokesman Maj. Gen.
Syamsul Ma'arif said one of 12 activists still reported missing,
Herman Hendrawan, has been found in the southern province of
Davao in the neighboring Philippines.

"He is now staying in the house of the Indonesian consulate-
general in Davao," Syamsul told reporters yesterday.

"He told officials at the consulate that he will return to
Indonesia, but asked for some time to calm himself before doing
so," he said.

According to Syamsul, the person who claimed to be Herman came
to the consulate on Monday after residing in the town, the
largest commercial town on Mindanao island, for two months. Davao
is about 600 kilometers north of Manado, the capital of North
Sulawesi.

However the consulate-general has yet to confirm whether the
person is who he said he is.

"We cannot confirm that he is really Herman Hendrawan because
he was not carrying any identification," head of Consular and
Economic Affairs in Davao Taufan Adityawarman, was quoted by
Antara as saying yesterday.

Munir from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) made a separate effort to confirm the report
but also failed to establish whether the man in the Davao
consulate was the person they had been trying to locate.

Munir told a media conference he had spoken to Hendrawan on
the phone yesterday but said the person, although he had the same
name, claimed he was a "different Herman Hendrawan."

"I am a kidnap victim but not the one you're looking for,"
Munir quoted Hendrawan as saying. "Please don't bother me."

Munir said the Hendrawan in Davao claimed he was a student at
Siliwangi University in Tasikmalaya, West Java, while the missing
Hendrawan on Kontras' list was a student at Airlangga University
in Surabaya, East Java.

Munir said the "real" Herman Hendrawan, 28, was abducted near
the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation office in Central Jakarta on
March 12, 1998, after proclaiming the establishment of the
National Committee for Democratic Struggle (KNPD) at the office.

Munir told The Jakarta Post late yesterday that he had sent a
two-member team to Davao to check if the person was the Herman
they have been seeking.

"We contacted the consulate and spoke to the person claiming
to be Herman Hendrawan. I am not sure that he is the Herman
Hendrawan who we have been looking for," Munir told a media
conference.

Munir said the person spoke with a Sundanese accent, not
Javanese like the Herman who they were seeking.

"Although (the missing) Herman is from Bangka island (South
Sumatra), he speaks with a Javanese accent," Munir said, adding
that he knew Herman well.

Munir said that Feisol Reza and Herman's girlfriend, both of
whom spoke to the man in Davao by telephone yesterday, also
doubted that he was the Herman Hendrawan who they knew.

Feisol is Herman's colleague and was abducted in March but
reappeared in April.

"We have faxed Herman's photograph to the consulate-general
office and they only said that the person bore a 'resemblance' to
(Herman Hendrawan)," Munir said.

Bodies

Meanwhile, Antara reported that villagers of Rantau Kijang in
the Lampung Utara regency subdistrict of Blambangan Umpu found a
total of 14 decaying human bodies adrift in the Way Umpu river
300 kilometers northwest of Bandarlampung, the provincial
capital.

The findings, which occurred between July 6 and July 18,
attracted the attention of Bandarlampung legal aid office and
Kontras. The two organizations sent a delegation to the site
because of suspicions that the bodies could have been those of
the missing activists.

But Munir said yesterday that Kontras had been unable to
conclude if the bodies were those of the missing activists and
urged the military police to investigate the matter.

Yesterday, National Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar
denied the discovery of the bodies.

"We have checked with Lampung Utara Police Precinct and based
on the report, only one body was found this month (July), on July
18 to be exact.

"The body was an unidentified male, aged between 30 and 35
years of age, with light brown skin, 170 centimeters tall and
weighing about 65 kilograms. The body had begun to decompose when
it was found," Da'i said. (byg/imn/aan/edt)