Jakarta - Beyond any expectations, the total number of activists which have disappeared since April is estimated to have reached 50. This was announced by the chair of the Indonesian Legal Aid foundation (YLBHI), Bambang Widjojanto on Tuesday (14/4) based on a report from LBH offices in different parts of Indonesia.
This figure is clearly different from the one announced by YLBHI lot long ago, which said that 10 activists had been reported missing by members of their families.
According to Bambang Widjojanto, the increase in the figure to 50 was because although there were other families who had already reported disappearances to LBH offices, the reports were not released to the press until they could be checked.
"We have assumed that the majority of the reports are 'true', so the definitive number of people who have disappeared has reached 50 all together", he said. According to data obtained by SiaR, in the last week YLBHI has received – aside from a report from the family of the Deputy Secretary General of DPP-PDI [pro-Megawati Indonesian Democratic Party], Haryanto Taslam – two other reports of people who have disappeared which have not yet been released to the press by YLBHI.
At the time of this report, YLBHI is presently holding a press conference on the activists which have disappeared, included new reports which have followed from the families of activists who have disappeared.
Two recent reports have come from the families of Rayan and Sonny, two DPP-PDI activists who disappeared almost one year ago, in April 1997, during the 1997 general election campaign. Their families have already checked at the Jakut police and Kodim 0502 (District Military Command) – the bodies responsible for detaining the two activists – about the whereabouts of their children.
"Kodim said that my child has already been released. At the time we were given a letter of proof that Ryan was released. But why has he not contacted his family to this day", said Ryan's mother, when she was reporting the disappearance of her child to YLBHI. Reports of activists which have disappeared have also come from LBH offices in Surabaya [East Java] and Ujung Pandang [South Sulawasi]. Two other activists who were reported to have disappeared by their families are Bima Anugerah, a student from STF Driyarkara, and a press activist from the Hasanudin University. Their disappearances were reported to the press at the beginning of April. The whereabouts of the Hasanudin University student was checked at 16 police stations in South Sulawasi, but with no success.
The families of the activists who have disappeared were disappointed by a statement by the Minister of Political and Security Affairs, Faisal Tanjung and the head of the armed forces public relations, Brigadier-General A Wahab Mokodongan, who questioned the truth of the reports by families of the activists who have disappeared, "perhaps the people who have disappeared are drinking coffee at a cafe and chatting". While Mokodongan said, "perhaps the people who are said to have disappeared are wandering around in the jungle".
"Many witnesses, the neighbours, saw how Andi Arief [chairperson of Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy, which is affiliated with the outlawed People's Democratic Party, who was abducted in Lampung, South Sumatra, on March 28] was abducted. Some of the abductors carried pistols. The description of the abductors [who were described as being well built and having short cropped hair] is in the chronology which was given to LBH Bandar Lampung. "Please, don't [the authorities] speak without thinking. This involves a person's life", said one of Arief's family members.
Two families of students from the University of Lampung, who disappeared after a clash with security forces on the campus, said that they had found two "unidentified" bodies which resembled their children. But the families – who are also pro-Megawati PDI sympathisers – have not been able to ascertain if the two unknown bodies, which were found on the outskirts of Lampung with their hands and legs tied, are in fact their children.
Not long ago, the Mangunkusumo Hospital in Jakarta announced that in the last two weeks – particularly alongside railroad tracks – 165 unidentified bodies had been found in Jakarta and the satellite cities of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi. Most of the bodies were victims of torture – with gunshot or stab wounds and bruises. Many families of activists who have disappeared are worried that those who have disappeared are among these unidentified bodies.
"I am resigned [to my son's death]. But if that is what happen, as a mother, I will [continue to] demand justice until the end of the world", said Rayan's mother.
Many believe that the perpetrators of the abductions of pro-democracy activists are a "death squad", which was formed by the commander of Kostrad, Lieutenant-General Prabowo [Suharto's son-in-law] and the armed forces intelligence body BIA.
The issue of people disappearing in Indonesia has become a focus of international attention. Over the last week, the European Union for example, has repeatedly raised the issue with the Indonesia's permanent representative in Geneva. As a result of the attention, there is a possibility that the EU will present an anti-Indonesian resolution in relation to the issue of democracy and implementation of human rights in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, US senator, Patrick Kennedy, in a letter to Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Alitas, also raised the question of the disappearances of Indonesian pro-democracy activists. To date, the Indonesian government has not given a clear or complete answer, except for responses which are "defensive" or play down the issue.
The minister of internal affairs, R Hartono for example, as if he was half-joking, said in Javanese: "[they] disappeared of their own will, why must [we be held] responsible".
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski]