Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has promised the families of victims of the Talangsari massacre and the late 1990s activist abductions that he will bring the cases to a meeting between senior officials responsible for security affairs.
In the meeting with six representatives of the victims' families in Jakarta on Tuesday, Juwono said should legal measures not be taken into the two cases, justice would still be upheld for the victims and their families.
He said he would discuss the issue with high-profile officials responsible for security affairs, including Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, the Attorney General, the Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief and the National Police Chief.
"Pak Juwono is considering a lot of things, starting with the acknowledgment (of guilt), compensation and possibly even clarity on the fate (of the victims). But that depends on the results of the coordination meeting," coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Usman Hamid, said after the closed meeting between representatives of the victims' families and the minister.
Juwono, who refused to disclose details of the meeting to the media, had expressed his sympathy as "an individual" and "a defense minister" to the victims' families, said Usman.
Hutomo Rahardjo, father of missing activist Petrus Bima Anugrah, said he was "very thankful" Juwono met with them. "I hope he does not consider what we told him during the meeting as a mere anecdote," he said.
Last week at the opening of a seminar on human rights and national defense at the University of Indonesia, the minister said accusations that the military was involved in both the Talangsari massacre and 1998 abductions was "anecdotal".
"I said that the Talangsari case was anecdotal because it was neither systematically nor intentionally the policy of the New Order regime. This must be made clear," he said to Kompas daily, sparking anger among the victim families'.
The Talangsari massacre occurred in Lampung in 1989 when over 200 people were allegedly killed by local military forces for teaching "deviant" Islam. Some of the "deviant" preachings involved criticisms of the government.
The abduction of prominent activists took place between 1997 and 1998 ahead of the 1997 general elections and the 1998 general session of the People's Consultative Assembly. Kontras has said that a total of 23 people – all pro-democracy activists – were abducted during the period. One was later found dead, nine were released and 13 remain missing.
The National Commission on Human Rights has classified the two cases as gross human rights abuse cases. It has also completed preliminary investigations into each case and submitted the results to the Attorney General's Office (AGO).
The AGO has returned the activists' abduction case file, along with the files of six other atrocity cases it deems as "invalid" due to the absence of ad hoc courts for the cases' trial. The Talangsari case file, which was submitted recently, has not yet received a response.