Rights body finds flaws in party office takeover

Rights body finds flaws in party office takeover

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights
continued yesterday with their effort to investigate possible
human rights violations committed during the forced takeover of
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters recently.

Four commission members visited the headquarters and found
"irregularities" which they said should be investigated further.
For instance, they detected a sharp acid smell and found newly
applied putty in the damaged rooms.

"The way the headquarters was ransacked and the acid smell
indicated an irregular condition. We'll collect all these facts,
analyze them and incorporate them into our report," commission
secretary-general Baharuddin Lopa said yesterday.

Accompanied by Soegiri, Clementino Dos Reis Amaral and Albert
Hasibuan, Lopa also visited some of the buildings that were
damaged and burned during the July 27 rioting, which erupted
following the takeover.

One of the lingering problems left from the rioting that the
government blamed on the Democratic People's Party, was the
question of missing people and those still detained at police
detention centers.

There have been varying accounts on the number of people
missing, with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation putting the
figure at 22. The legal aid office had earlier lamented that
access to hospitals was blocked, which prevented them from
verifying reports about people reportedly injured or killed
during the rioting.

Sandyawan Sumardi of a non-governmental organization, the
Jakarta Social Institute, told The Jakarta Post that the search
has been extremely difficult.

"Though we told officers the places where victims would be
logically placed and that we were working with the National
Commission on Human Rights, we still don't receive any
assistance," he said.

Three agencies -- the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the
Jakarta Social Institute and the National Commission on Human
Rights -- have formed a fact finding committee.

Besides, "Many people don't dare report a family member as
missing because they have been threatened and spied on,"
Sandyawan alleged.

Meanwhile, Mangara Siahaan, a member of the ousted PDI
executive board under Megawati Soekarnoputri, was upbeat about
the detained persons at the city police detention center.

"Experience has shown that detained people will be released
soon," he assured worried people crowding the entrance of the
city police detention center in search of their missing
relatives.

He said PDI's latest figures on its missing members was 50
people.

The detention center is currently holding at least 240
persons, around half of which are those rounded up during the
July 27 riots. Officers said that although the detention center
can hold up to 300 persons, the visitors' area was too small to
hold the unusually large number of visitors.

While waiting for his turn to visit the detainees, Mangara
tried to answer questions from their worried relatives. Theresia,
asking about her younger brother Hendriko from the PDI East
Jakarta branch, was told that since he had a PDI membership card,
he would likely be soon released.

"Remain convinced that your brother is not a thief or a
criminal," Mangara said.

"I will also be questioned by the police," he said, adding
that officially unrecognized party chairwoman Megawati will also
come for questioning today and try to visit the detainees.
(imn/14/anr/swe)