The agony of not knowing hurts families of missing persons
JAKARTA (JP): Their loved ones have been missing for months, some for more than a year. The families of Indonesia's missing persons rely on their vivid memories to help keep their hope alive.
Some of these families live far from Jakarta, and not all have the energy or the means to keep going back and forth to the capital to inquire about their lost members.
The following are a few accounts from families of missing persons:
D. Utomo Rahardjo, the father of Petrus Bima Anugerah, last communicated with his son over the phone. During the short conversation, shortly before the young man disappeared on March 31, his son only requested that the family pray for his safety, Utomo told The Jakarta Post.
A relative requesting anonymity said Petrus had felt threatened because his calls to an apartment of his fellow student activists in Klender, East Jakarta, had gone unanswered.
Petrus, a former Airlangga University student, was asked by his relatives to move to Jakarta after fellow activists -- including Dita Sari who is still being detained in Tangerang -- were arrested. He soon after continued his studies at the Driyarkara Theology Institute in Central Jakarta.
A few days before Petrus was reported missing, fellow activists had warned him to be extra careful.
His father said Petrus had always been active in his community's youth activities as well as in church. Utomo works as a paramedic in a mental hospital in Malang, while Petrus' mother, Misiati, recently retired from a teaching career.
Utomo last came to Jakarta to meet National Military Police Commander Maj. Gen. Syamsu Djalal, the head of the Armed Forces' (ABRI) fact-finding team on the disappearances, and to the Ministry of Defense and Security with families of other missing persons on July 22.
They had hoped to meet Minister of Defense and Security/ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto. The meeting finally took place Thursday.
Utomo said Gen. Wiranto should be held responsible for the disappearances: "I just want clarity and certainty" about Petrus' condition. He walked out of the meeting with Syamsu because he felt the answers to his questions were unsatisfactory.
Utomo, speaking by phone from his home in Malang, East Java, said he was "democratic" and had never forbidden Petrus from joining potentially dangerous activities.
In the first weeks after Petrus was reported missing, Utomo said the family did not want neighbors to fuss.
"We still joined community activities and even had a neighbors' gathering at home. Nobody knew." When their neighbors found out, many came to support the family, both at Utomo's hospital and at his wife's school.
Noval
Petrus' mother said of her recent retirement: "It seems that God has arranged this" so she could have more time to go back and forth to the offices of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and government authorities in Jakarta to inquire about their son.
In Jakarta, Taj-Biby, 49, spoke affectionately about her son, Noval S. Alkatiri, whom she has not seen since May 29, 1997. Noval, the second child of five, had been the family's breadwinner.
"He is a really devoted son, and worked hard to support us and was the main financial contributor to his father's diabetic treatment," Taj-Biby told the Post.
She insisted that her son was not politically active. Noval and a family friend, Deddy Hamdun, went missing with Noval's driver Ismail on the same day. Deddy and the family had a remote business relationship in the past, she said.
Noval and his daughter, Nafilah, lived with his parents following his divorce. Nafilah is one of the last people to see her father.
On the day Noval was reported missing, Nafilah accompanied her father to his office upon her grandmother's request.
"It was election day, and I asked Noval to bring Nafilah to his office so that she wouldn't be lonely at home. A couple of hours later, my son dropped his daughter at home. Without getting out of the car, he told her to change clothes. We were planning to go out together after he came back from picking up Deddy," recalled Taj-Biby. Nafilah was ready at the time promised, but her father never returned.
Pictures of missing people on television and newspapers have brought reality closer to home. "Nafilah always points to the TV (when Noval's picture is aired) and says, 'That's Abah (Father)! He's going to take me around when he comes back'," Taj-Biby added.
The family said that Taj-Biby's health had deteriorated and that she had lost 10 kilograms since her son was reported missing. Yet the family has not lost hope.
"We have been waiting patiently for a year. We are willing to continue waiting for months as long as the military can assure Noval's safety and whereabouts," said Erie Alkatiri, Noval's sister.
Similar uncertainty and hope was voiced by the family of Yani Afri, who live in a modest apartment in Tanah Abang. His mother remembers the first days that began the family's long wait.
"That afternoon (April 26, 1997), Yani was sleeping after a long working night. A man whom I have never seen before, who introduced himself as Sonny, came and woke my son up, and that was the last time I saw him," Tuti told the Post.
Three days later, upon hearing news that her son was being detained by the military, Tuti went to the North Jakarta Military District only to find that her son had been released but was missing again.
Since then she has lived in uncertainty. The family has even gone to see a soothsayer, but has found no solace except for some news from Kontras that another missing person since released by his captors reported that he had met Yani.
"I only want my son to come home safely. I don't care whether there is a trial of those military personnel (alleged captors)," Tuti said.
She joined with other families to meet Gen. Wiranto on Thursday. "I was totally unsatisfied with his answers."
Tuti said her son, who loves to sing, was a model to his other children. A young man with a strong will, she said Yani closely resembled the character and physical features of his late father, a decorated soldier of the Siliwangi Army division.
Yani and Yusuf, his younger brother, had worked together for years as public transport drivers.
"He usually worked as the driver, while I was his assistant. We were really close. People never guessed we were brothers," said Yusuf, 25.
Yusuf said that it was Yani who pulled him from a life on the street after he graduated from high school. He said he would have known if his brother was politically active. "I have always been together with him."
On Friday, dramatic news broke out that one missing person on the list was found: Hendra Hendrawan, but as this went to press, the news was yet to be confirmed.
Hendrawan's close friend, Nurhikmah, had said he told her his dream: "One day, when we succeed in achieving our aim (democracy), I would like to bring all underprivileged children of Jakarta to Ancol (beach resort), and let them have a taste of freedom." Nurhikmah, also an activist, described Hendrawan as coming from a disciplined Moslem family "with a fixed commitment toward the democratic movement."
Found
Those who have been reunited with their families are Pius Lustrilanang, 30, the secretary-general of Aldera (the People's Democratic Alliance) and a student at Parahyangan University, Bandung; Desmon J. Mahesa, the director of the Nusantara Legal Aid Office in Jakarta; Rahardjo Waluyo Djati, 29, an activist of the National Committee for Democracy (KNPD) and a student at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) who disappeared with Faisol Riza, 25, KNPD activist and UGM student who has also returned, and Hendrawan, who is still missing; Nezar Patria, 28, also a UGM student and secretary-general of the Association of Indonesian Students for Democracy (SMID); Mugianto, 25, SMID activist and UGM student, captured together with Nezar and Aan Rusdianto at a Klender apartment, East Jakarta, who has also returned; Andi Arief, 28, the chairman of SMID; and Haryanto Taslam, an executive in Megawati Soekarnoputri's wing of the Indonesian Democratic Party. (46/anr)