Police doubtful about the agrarian activist kidnapping

Police doubtful about the agrarian activist kidnapping

JAKARTA (JP): National Police Headquarters questioned on
Monday the truth behind the testimonies of four agrarian
activists who had returned home safely after going missing for 12
days.

Head of the National Police Information Department Sr. Supt.
Saleh Saaf said the police doubted that the four activists had
really been kidnapped.

"That's a dagelan (comedy)," Saleh told reporters in his
office.

Saleh said that if an abduction really occurred, it was
unlikely that kidnappers would then just let the activists go.

"I'm sure that this is a cheap story," Saleh said, while
citing indications that the abduction of the four activists had
been conducted to smear the police's image.

Saleh did not accuse the four Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA)
activists -- Anton Sulton, 26, Idham Kurniawan, 24, Usep
Setiawan, 28, and Muh. Hafiz Asdam, 23 -- of having disappeared
on their own will.

But it's impossible that the abduction was carried out by
professionals, Saleh said.

"We're still looking for the mastermind (of the abduction),"
Saleh added.

The four activists went missing on Aug. 14 after staging a
hunger strike at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and
House of Representatives (DPR) compound during the Assembly's 12-
day Annual Session. They returned home separately on Aug. 27.

On Friday, the four activists told their stories about the
alleged abduction.

In tears, the activists said that they had been abducted
shortly after having dinner at the basement of the Sogo shopping
center on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

After being kept for several days in small rooms in an area
unknown by the activists, they were then given airline tickets to
Jakarta.

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) claimed that
the kidnapping was possibly ordered by conglomerates who did not
want their land reclaimed. The commission demanded that the
police find the party who had ordered the kidnapping.

The Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras) demanded that the police rehabilitate the four
activists' whose physical and emotional conditions were affected
by the trauma of the alleged abduction.

Saleh said the police had summoned the four activists to the
police headquarters to testify as witnesses.

"But they have declined to come so far. But, it's their right
not to come," Saleh said. (jaw)