Police 'must wait' until missing activists recover

Police 'must wait' until missing activists recover

JAKARTA (JP): A human rights campaigner protested on Wednesday
the City Police's plan to summon the four activists of the
Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), who had allegedly been
abducted, for questioning, suggesting that the police wait until
the activists recover from their mental trauma.

"The police look keen in their effort to deal with the case.

But, we have warned them that the four activists have yet to
recover from their mental trauma. Therefore, the police must wait
until they are back to normal," Coordinator of the Committee for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Munarman told
The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He was commenting on the police's latest plan to question the
activists as witnesses at City Police headquarters on Friday. The
City Police Criminal Investigation Unit sent the summonses on
Thursday to the four activists.

As of Wednesday, the four -- Anton Sulton, Idham Kurniawan,
Usep Setiawan and Muh. Hafiz Asdam -- were still under Kontras'
supervision in a secure place in Jakarta and were receiving
treatment from a psychiatrist.

The four activists went missing on Aug. 14, after they staged
a hunger strike at the MPR building, demanding agrarian reform.

Complaining of feeling ill, some police medical personnel took
the initiative of transporting them by ambulance to the police's
Soekanto Hospital in Kramatjati, East Jakarta.

But, on their way to hospital, the four said they felt better
and managed to persuade the police to drop them in front of the
General Election Commission (KPU) building on Jl. Imam Bonjol in
Central Jakarta. The four then had dinner at the Sogo department
store in Plaza Indonesia, Central Jakarta.

They were later abducted by six men while they were walking on
Jl. Kebon Kacang after dinner.

The four activists returned to Jakarta on Sunday from several
areas in Central Java, after they were released by the
"suspected" abductors.

Since they were still suffering from mental trauma, the four
activists were absent during a press conference held by Kontras
at its secretariat on Sunday.

Munarman said that overhasty questioning would only make the
activists suffer more trauma.

"The activists were held for two weeks by the abductor(s). The
trauma will return if the police force them to quickly undergo
questioning," he said.

He added that Kontras was unable to say when the activists
would be handed over to the police.

He blamed the police for basing its investigation solely on
the questioning of the victims.

"The police can question witnesses in Sogo, KPU or other
places. They can also investigate the bills for the victims'
telephone recordings," he said.

Separately, City Police spokesman Supt. Muhammad Nur H. Usman
slammed Kontras for its inconsistency in the case.

"At its press conference on Sunday, Kontras urged the police
to investigate the case. However, as of Wednesday, it has yet to
hand over the witnesses to us," he said.

He said the witnesses' testimony was important for revealing
the truth behind the incident, since the police would know the
details of their respective times with their abductors.

He said the police wanted the case to be solved soon since
some sections of the public had accused the police of being the
abductors.

Nur said the police had the authority to bring the activists
to police headquarters for questioning by force if they failed to
appear after they had been summoned on three consecutive
occasions.

Munarman said Kontras would resist the police's bid to compel
the activists to testify if they were still suffering from
trauma.

"We will fight the police's move, since the victims should not
be forced to testify," he said. (asa)