Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The House of Representatives will set up a special committee to investigate the 1997 abduction of 17 democracy activists, alleged to have involved former president Soeharto and Army generals.
The decision was made in a plenary meeting presided over by Deputy House Speaker Zainal Maarif on Tuesday.
A recommendation on the issue had come from the law commission, which had previously failed to press the Attorney General's Office to investigate the case, came on the heels of increasing public pressure.
The National Commission on Human Rights has described the abductions as "gross human rights violation(s)".
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh told a recent hearing with the law commission that he was reluctant to investigate the case because his office had no preliminary evidence.
Many legislators are still skeptical of the House's commitment to the investigation and of political parties to giving their full support to a thorough investigation, despite Tuesday's decision.
"Such weak political support is indicated by the small number of legislators in attendance at the plenary meeting when the decision was made," said Djoko Susilo of the National Mandate Party.
Only around 60 legislators attended the plenary meeting, which was declared valid as more than two-thirds of the 550 House legislators had signed the register.
Ali Mochtar, a Golkar Party legislator, said he was afraid the investigation would become a political game as there was no guarantee that the President would set up an ad hoc court to bring to justice those involved in the case. "The stagnant investigations into the so-called Semanggi and Trisakti tragedies in 1998 and 1999 are bad precedents, because both the House and the government are apparently buying time," he said.
Trimedya Panjaitan, chairman of the law commission and a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said both the commission and the PDI-P were committed to resolving the human rights abuses.
"We don't want to be indebted to the people and any human rights violation case must be investigated thoroughly by the Attorney General's Office," he said.
Trimedya said the committee, whose members are expected to be taken from the defense and law commissions, would look for possible human rights abuses in the case as its main task.
"The commission has as its main task looking into how the abduction was conducted and to look for possible human rights violations in the case. Finally, justice must be upheld," he said.
The 13 activists abducted for criticizing Soeharto's regime were Petrus Bima Anugrah, Herman Hendrawan, Suyat, Wiji Thukul, Yani Afri, Sonny, Dedi Hamdun, Noval Al Katiri, Ismail, Ucok Siahaan, Hendra Hambali, Yadin Muhidin and Abdul Nasser.
Some were students while other were supporters of the ex-Democratic People's Party and then Megawati Soekarnoputri-led camp of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
The rights body has asked to interview Soeharto and his close aides in the military, such as former Indonesian Military commander Gen. Wiranto, former chiefs of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto and Muchdi Purwopranjono, and former chief of Jakarta Military Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsuddin.