Stop political kidnappings
By Mulyana W. Kusumah
JAKARTA (JP): The Spanish have a special word for the disappearance of politically linked people which distinguishes it from missing persons. The word is decaparacido.
Decaparacido is closely related to the painful histories of a number of nations in many parts of the world.
Earlier this century, Nazi Germany was a foremost actor of the crime against its political enemies, complementing the country's mass cruelties of imprisonment, deportation and genocide.
Confronting its resistance movement and based on the doctrine of Night and Fog (Nacht und Nebel), Hitler passed an order in 1941 stating that anyone considered a danger to Germany had to be exterminated. To prevent martyrdom, the regime resorted to decaparacido in dealing with its political enemies.
Thirty years later, decaparacido astonished the world when it was practiced on a massive scale in Guatemala, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
A number of countries aired their concern by condemning the practice as part of a strategy of political victimization in certain countries in the UN General Assembly resolution of Dec. 20, 1978. Later, the resolution was followed by the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (1992).
Article 1 of the declaration states that: 1. Each action of enforced disappearance is a crime against human dignity. The action is condemned as a denial of the objectives of the UN Charter and is a serious violation against human rights and basic freedom as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and clarified and developed in the international instruments in this field. 2. Each action of enforced disappearance putting persons as targets outside legal protection and causing great suffering to them and their families is a violation of international rules which guarantee, among others, the right to be recognized as an individual before the law, the right to personal freedom and safety, and the right not to become the target of torture, cruel inhuman treatment and punishment degrading to human dignity and forming a big threat to the right to live.
International endeavors, through, among others, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, found in 1981 that between 11,000 to 15,000 cases of disappearances had taken place in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia and others.
One consistent pattern of disappearance is an escalation of political control strategy through repression by minimizing responsibility, generally with centralization of decision-making and decentralization of disappearance operations.
Others vary from one country to another. In Argentina (after the March 1976 military coup), political kidnappings were committed by officials who claimed to be policemen, security apparatus or armed units.
Guatemala followed the same pattern as part of the contra- insurgency campaign. In Africa, disappearances took place in two ways (a) political enemies were detained or kidnapped by security officers, with the government denying involvement, and (b) political detainees disappeared from prison, but the government did not give an adequate explanation.
The problem of disappearances in Indonesia is not new. It has happened all through its history, but the pattern of recent disappearances as reported to Kontras, an NGO dealing with reports of disappearances and acts of violence, includes:
1. Abductions by unidentified groups in which the victims were held in an undisclosed place from where they could not communicate with the outside world (incommunicado informal detention).
2. Pressured psychological conditioning in such a way that the "missing" persons remain silent after they returned to the community.
3. After a period of denial from the authorities, there appears to be some form of admission and response from the security officers to at least accept the report of the victims' families and their lawyers' complaints.
At least in one case, that of Andi Arief, while the police were delegated the responsibility for the "post-kidnapping" period, an administrative irregularity in the form of incompatible dates on the police warrants could further erode public trust in the judicial system.
Prompt responses from various parties like the National Commission on Human Rights, Kontras, the Team of Volunteers for Humanity and a number of religious dignitaries to make the cases of disappearance public issues are likely to have a protective impact on the victims and their families.
Besides, we really do not hope for the continuation of disappearances as a choice of action in the framework of political control, especially now that the cases are under the scrutiny of the international community.
The recent public testimony by Pius Lustrilanang, a victim of abduction, to the National Commission on Human Rights constituted as a demand for accountability on the part of the power holders and as a public lesson on the reality of politics and violence.
It is only fitting that, "missing" persons who have returned to the community, like Desmond J. Mahesa, Haryanto Taslam, Rahardjo Waluyojati, Feisol Reza should follow Pius' example.
They should reveal their bitter experiences honestly, and with moral support from the community.
The small fact-finding team established by the Armed Forces is expected to function not only by probing into the possibility of military members being involved in the disappearances of civilians, but also to give protection to the victims who have returned to disclose their experiences.
The writer is a lecturer in political science at the University of Indonesia and head of advisory board of Kontras.
Window: One consistent pattern of disappearance is an escalation of political control strategy through repression by minimizing responsibility, generally with centralization of decision-making and decentralization of disappearance operations.