Relatives of missing activists meet with ICRC

JAKARTA (JP): Relatives of missing activists met with representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) here yesterday in a bid to press authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), an independent advocate group for relatives of missing persons, said the relatives approached the ICRC because they were unsatisfied with the snail pace of the authority's investigation.

"We went to the ICRC since the authorities here have been unresponsive," Kontras deputy chairman Dadang Trisasongko told journalists at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation office in Central Jakarta.

Dadang lamented the fact that authorities had made little progress since they started their investigation last month.

Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto set up a team to investigate the cases. The team includes the Military Police chief, the assistant for security and social order and the Armed Forces assistant for intelligence.

Dadang said Kontras accompanied relatives of Suyat, Bimo Petrus Anugrah, Noval Alkatiri, Yani Avri and Leonardus "Gilang" Nugroho Iskandar in a meeting yesterday with ICRC officials based here in Jakarta.

Suyat, a student of Sebelas Maret University in Surakarta, Central Java, went missing in February in Surakarta, while Bimo, a student activist from the Driyarkara School of Philosophy, vanished in Jakarta last March.

Noval, a businessman, and Yani, a public transportation driver, went missing during the campaign period for last year's general election, while activist Gilang, who was also known as a street singer in Surakarta and nearby cities, was found dead in a forest area in Magetan, East Java, on May 23 after he was missing for two days.

The spokeswoman of the ICRC office here, Sri Wahyu Endah, told The Jakarta Post that the relatives met with the mission's deputy head, Pierre Gerber.

"We will follow up the case on the basis of their information," she said.

The National Commission on Human Rights has claimed that student and political activists who went missing were abducted by a well-organized group. (byg)