Search for missing Aceh activist begins

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Security authorities began searching on Tuesday for the chairman of the New York-based nongovernmental organization International Forum for Aceh (IFA), Jafar Sidik Hamzah.

He was reported missing in the North Sumatra capital Medan on Saturday and it is feared he has been abducted.

North Sumatra Police chief Brig. Gen. Sutanto said in Medan on Tuesday that his personnel had been assigned to distribute copies of Jafar's photo and began collecting leads on his whereabouts.

"Previous information has revealed that Jafar was on a visit to a palm-oil plantation belonging to PT Parasawita on Jl. Ahmad Yani in Medan just before he disappeared," Sutanto said as quoted by Antara.

The company is said to be owned by a wealthy Acehnese.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has denied any involvement in the case.

"We have never committed any abductions, eliminations or any kind of military intelligence operations to 'remove' certain people, including the missing IFA activist," said Maj. Gen. I Gede Purnawa, chief of the Bukit Barisan Military Command overseeing Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau.

"We are fully committed to the government's political decisions on Aceh and I guarantee that none of my men are involved in disrupting the humanitarian pause in Aceh," Purnawa said in Medan on Tuesday, referring to the recent truce signed between the government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist leaders.

In Banda Aceh, Alamsyah Hamdani, a lawyer and a close associate of Jafar, said in a statement on Tuesday that the United States Consulate in Medan as well as the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in Jakarta had been told of Jafar's disappearance.

"We strongly fear that he has been kidnapped," Alamsyah said.

Jafar's relatives said they last heard from him on Saturday.

"He usually calls every two hours but we haven't heard from him since (Saturday). We're really worried as he always used to tell us where he was," one of Jafar's relatives, who asked for anonymity, said on Monday.

Jafar was in Banda Aceh on July 22 to attend a human rights seminar and had visited relatives in Aceh and Medan before his disappearance.

He reportedly returned to Aceh about three weeks ago to set up an office of the Support Committee for Human Rights for Aceh (SCHRA).

Chief of Aceh's Forum Peduli HAM (Aceh's Human Rights Concern Forum) Syaifuddin Bantasyam expressed concern over the incident on Tuesday and hoped for Jafar's safe return.

"Personally, I think Medan is no longer a safe city for activists or outspoken figures, especially those defending the rights of Acehnese," Syaifuddin said.

Syaifuddin said that several fatal incidents had taken place in Medan this year, such as the unsolved murder of Tengku Nashiruddin Daud, who was a House of Representatives (DPR) member and a member of a special committee for Aceh, in late January.

GAM spokesman Ismail Syahputra also reportedly went missing in Medan a couple of months ago and has not been seen since.

Jafar, 36, is a native of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh, and a naturalized American citizen. He has been a vocal campaigner against the human rights abuses committed by the military during its 10 years of military operations in Aceh.

The government scrapped its military operations in Aceh in 1998.

Meanwhile, two policemen were killed on Monday in continuing violence in Aceh.

The murders came only a day after the government and GAM negotiators in Geneva said that they were "strongly inclined" to extend the humanitarian pause in the province, which is due to expire on Sept. 2.

The first victim, a member of the police elite Mobile Brigade named Second Sgt. Jon Sanova, was shot dead by two armed men on a motorbike in Banda Masen village on Monday in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh Police chief Supt. Abadan Bangko said.

Second Sgt. Muhammad Anan was killed after he was hit by a truck in front of the North Aceh Police station around 11 a.m. on Monday.

The incident brought the death toll in Aceh to 44 since the implementation of the humanitarian pause on June 2. (50/edt)