Team formed to find bodies

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung: Lampung Police Chief Col. Gendro Budi Santoso said here yesterday that a fact-finding team had been formed to investigate reports of 14 dead bodies sighted in the Umpu River in Blambangan Umpu district, North Lampung.

"This case has risen to become a national case. So in order for it not to become confusing and to dig up the truth, the Lampung Police has formed a fact-finding team," he said as quoted by Antara.

The team is comprised of the police intelligence chief, the Lampung Utara Police chief, journalists from the Lampung branch of the Indonesian Journalists Association and members of the Bandar Lampung office of the Legal Aid Foundation.

The team began their investigation without much fanfare on Monday by traveling to the reported location of the sightings.

So far, they have only confirmed that one body had been found and identified. The man, found about two weeks ago, was reportedly in his mid 30s.

Human rights groups in Jakarta had asked the government to seriously look into the reported sightings after there was public speculation that the bodies could be the ones of missing activists.