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)