Rights body to check on missing people

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights will assign an investigation team to compile information on the reported disappearances of several activists.

After a four-hour meeting attended by all but one of its 25 members, the commission said it would need at least another week before issuing a report on the matter. Additional teams would be dispatched to gather and check facts on the reports of missing people.

The Commission's deputy chairman, Marzuki Darusman, said yesterday the team would be sent to verify reports of disappearances in cities including Bandung, West Java; Yogyakarta; Surakarta and Semarang, Central Java; Surabaya, East Java; Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi and Lampung, South Sumatra.

Commission members Saparinah Sadli, Soetandyo, Aisyah Amini, Clementino dos Reis Amaral and Charles Himawan will depart for Surabaya and Ujungpandang in the next few days, he added.

Teams have already left for Lampung and Yogyakarta.

"The public has been closely watching this issue, and the commission must verify whether the missing students and activists could be categorized as voluntary or involuntary disappearances," Marzuki said.

"We need to make further investigations before coming to the final conclusion."

He said the commission may meet with two prominent activists, Desmon J. Mahesa and Pius Lustri Lanang, who were missing since February but returned home earlier this month.

"But we will let the two settle down first so it will not disturb them because we understand they have been through a period of trepidation," he said.

Several vocal government critics and activists have been reported missing in the past month in the wake of widespread student rallies.

Meanwhile, at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation office in Central Jakarta yesterday, the parents of Haryanto Taslam and Yani Avri arrived to seek support for investigations on the whereabouts of their missing children.

Haryanto, an Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) executive loyal to Megawati Soekarnoputri, went missing on March 9, two days after checking into a hotel in East Jakarta.

Yani has been missing since participating in a PDI rally during the campaign period in May last year. His mother, Tuti, said Yani was detained by police because he was wearing a pro- Megawati shirt.

Foundation secretary Munir said the organization had sent a letter to Armed Forces Chief Gen. Wiranto requesting an appointment to discuss the disappearances.

The foundation has also received reports of seven other missing people: Airlangga University students Bimo Petrus and Herman Hendrawan, 27; Gadjah Mada University student Andi Arief, 27, who disappeared in Lampung; two other Gadjah Mada University students, Faizol Reza, 24, and Abdul Rahardjo Waluyo Djati, 28; 11 Maret University student Suyat; and a public transportation driver, Sonny, who, like Yani, disappeared after a PDI rally during last year's election campaign. (byg)