Rights body says 77 people missing in Banjarmasin

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)