Three young student activists, arrested by police in Jakarta on 6 March 1997 and currently believed to be in South Jakarta Police Resort, are feared to be at risk of torture or ill-treatment in custody. There is no information about whether they have access to independent lawyers or family members. Torture and ill-treatment of political detainees is common in Indonesia. The risk is heightened for those held incommunicado.
The three, Bimo Petrus, Hanni and Iing, were arrested as they and one other attempted to display posters and write graffiti slogans in Rambutan, Jakarta, calling for a boycott of the parliamentary election to be held in Indonesia on 29 May 1997. When confronted by police, three of the youths escaped, but Iing was detained. Hanni and Bimo Petrus, however, were later arrested on the street as they were attempting to return to a safe house.
At the time of their arrest, the three are believed to have been in possession of leaflets urging an election boycott. The leaflets are thought to have been published by the unofficial People's Democratic Party (Partai Demokratik Indonesia - PRD), the organization which has been linked by the authorities to the banned Indonesian Communist Party and blamed by the authorities for instigating riots in Jakarta in July 1996. There are currently 14 members of the PRD on trial for subversion in Jakarta and Surabaya.
There are reports that six other people were arrested in the city of Bogor on 7 March. Amnesty International cannot confirm these reports.
Background information
Following the riots in Jakarta in July 1996, up to 108 individuals were arbitrarily arrested, with dozens being held incommunicado before being allowed access to lawyers. Some of those held incommunicado were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Arbitrary arrests of political activists have continued, accompanied by the risk of incommunicado detention. Irwan Adriyansah, a student activist, was arrested in Bandung on 26 February 1997 allegedly in connection with opposition pamphlets and magazines. He was held incommunicado in police custody before being released on 1 March.