Relatives of missing activists sue Wiranto

Relatives of missing activists sue Wiranto

JAKARTA (JP): Relatives of a number of missing political
activists have filed a lawsuit against Indonesian Military (TNI)
Chief Gen. Wiranto accusing the latter of failing to bring to
court military officers who were allegedly involved in the
abductions.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras), who represents the plaintiffs, said the suit was filed
in the East Jakarta District Court on Friday.

"The defendant has failed to bring Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto,
Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwopranjono and Col. Chairawan to court for
their alleged involvement in the abductions," Kontras'
coordinator, Munir, said in the lawsuit.

Prabowo, a former Army's Special Force (Kopassus) commander,
was honorably discharged from the military last year while the
two other senior Kopassus officers, Muchdi and Chairawan, were
also released from active duty for their alleged involvement in
the abductions of political activists in the last months of
Soeharto's regime.

"Instead of prosecuting Prabowo, Muchdi and Chairawan, the
defendant recommended the prosecution of 11 junior Kopassus
members who were clearly under the command of the three at the
time of the abductions," Munir said.

In April a military court sentenced the 11 to between one year
and 22 months in jail for abducting nine activists in February
and March last year.

At the time, one of the defendants told the court that he had
established a "Rose Team" within Kopassus in July 1997 to arrest
"radical activists" who he said were trying to sabotage the
General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly in March
last year.

Human rights activists, however, said that the court martial
was staged only to minimize the faults of TNI as an institution
and turn the abductions into a mere "procedural mistake" by a
number of Kopassus members.

They also said the charges did not point to a hierarchy in the
command that led to the decision to abduct the activists.
Instead, the charges were formulated to create the impression
that the abductions were the personal initiative of the
defendants.

The nine activists, who reappeared after weeks of absence, had
been among 22 activists who were abducted by unidentified men
since April 1997.

Thirteen others are still listed as missing.

Among the plaintiffs were Tuti, the mother of Yani Avri who
was abducted in April 1997 in Jakarta; Sahid Alkatiri, the father
of Noval Alkatiri, who was kidnapped in May in Jakarta the same
year; and Riwan Nefo S., the brother of Herman Hendrawan who was
abducted in March last year.

Munir said the plaintiffs were demanding Rp 1 billion
(US$133,000) in compensation for material losses and another Rp 1
billion for non-material losses. (byg)