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)