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)