Rights body says 77 people missing in Banjarmasin

BANJARMASIN, South Kalimantan (JP): Seventy-seven people are still missing after the May 23 riot in the South Kalimantan capital of Banjarmasin, the National Commission on Human Rights announced yesterday.

When announcing the preliminary findings of its investigation into the riot, commission secretary-general Baharuddin Lopa confirmed the authorities' report that 123 people had died in the riot.

Only three of the victims have been identified by relatives. The burnt remains of the other 120 were buried Saturday near Banjarmasin.

When asked what had happened to the 77 missing people, Lopa said: "Security personnel are searching for them."

Tanjungpura military commander Maj. Gen. Namuri Anoem S. and investigation team members Asmara Nababan, Sjamsudin, Soetandyo and M. Salim also attended the press conference.

The riot began when supporters of the Moslem-based United Development Party (PPP) fought supporters of Golkar, which was holding its last round of campaigning in the city on May 23.

The PPP supporters were reportedly angry because Golkar had started campaigning before Moslems had finished their Friday prayers.

Hundreds of houses, several shops, supermarkets, cinemas, churches, hotels were vandalized or burned by rioters in what residents called "eight hours of anarchy".

Security personnel, greatly outnumbered by the estimated 50,000 rioters, could do little to stop the riot until reinforcements arrived from outside the province at about midnight.

In the cleanup after the riot, Police discovered 123 charred bodies, including 121 bodies on the second story of the town's largest shopping center, Mitra Plaza.

Police said the 121 were looters who had been trapped by the fire. The supermarket was reportedly closed soon after the riot erupted at about 2 p.m. Rioters forced their way into the building in the evening when the fire started

Lopa said the commission could not accept that all the victims were looters, saying they might include people who had had no intention of stealing from the shopping center.

"They might have been curious to know what was happening on the second story but unfortunately could not escape," said Lopa.

Dismissing a rumor that security personnel had fired on the crowd and then threw their bodies into the blaze, Lopa said the team believed the crowd could not escape from Mitra Plaza's second story because of a lack of oxygen and the difficulty of finding an exit.

Lopa said there were human rights violations in the riot, including violations of property rights and human dignity. But the team could not yet say who was responsible for the violations. He refused to say if the team could ever make such a conclusion.

Lopa said the team had not found evidence that the riot was racially or religiously motivated.

Of the 181 people arrested during and after the riot, only 83 suspects remained in custody, Lopa said.

The team urged police to be more careful about detaining suspects since some of them might not have committed crimes in the riot.

During its stay in Banjarmasin from Friday to Sunday, the team met suspects, police, military, leaders of political organizations, religious leaders, students of Lambung Mangkurat University and reporters for the Banjarmasin Post local daily. They also inspected Mitra Plaza. (jsk)