Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Families of victims of past human rights violations on Wednesday sought the assistance of the country's largest Islamic organization in pressuring the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to settle their cases.

The families, accompanied by representatives of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), visited the Central Jakarta office of Nahdlatul Ulama in Central Jakarta, where they met the NU's deputy chairman, Slamet Effendy Yusuf.

They asked Slamet to use the influence of his organization, which claims as many as 50 million members nationwide, to help them find answers.

They also sought guarantees that the NU would not provide shelter for those who could be linked to past rights violations.

Most of the family members lost relatives in one of three incidents: the violence in Jakarta that preceded the resignation of President Suharto in 1998, which included the kidnapping of 22 activists critical of the government; the 1989 killings of 130 Muslims in Talangsari, Lampung, by soldiers; and the killings that took place during rioting in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, in 1984.

Soemarsih, whose son, Wawan, a student, went missing during the 1998 violence, asked the current NU leadership to be as proactive in the matter as the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid was when he served as the organization's chairman and later as Indonesia's president.

She said Abdurrahman had supported the families, and had commissioned a tribunal to investigate the Tanjung Priok riots.

In contrast, she said, Yudhoyono had promised to investigate 1998 abductions of anti-government activists, but failed to respond to a House of Representative recommendation to establish a tribunal to look into the case.

"President Yudhoyono has done nothing in response to the House's recommendation that the government search for the bodies of our missing sons," Soemarsih said. "We hope the Nahdatul Ulama leadership has the same spirit as Gus Dur."

Soemarsih also voiced concern about the commitment of the NU since its appointment of As'ad Said Ali, a deputy chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), to its leadership board. "Many of the bad guys always hide behind big organizations," she said.

Slamet promised the families that the NU was committed to upholding the principles of human rights, including the settlement of past violations.