Mariel Grazella, Jakarta – The failure of the Indonesian government to put to trial those responsible for the abduction and enforced disappearance of 13 political activists in 1997-1998 will perpetuate human rights violations and legal impunity in Indonesia, an international rights groups said Wednesday.

"The Indonesian government must immediately implement recommendations by the [House of Representatives] to investigate and try those responsible for the abduction and enforced disappearances of 13 political activists in 1997-1998," Amnesty International said in a press statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

"The failure to follow the recommendations, issued on September 30, 2009, to establish the truth about what happened to the disappeared and to hold the perpetrators to account perpetuates an ongoing human rights violation and the climate of impunity in Indonesia," Amnesty added.

At least 13 political activists disappeared in 1997-1998 during the last volatile months of former president Soeharto's rule. The whereabouts of these activists, five of whom disappeared in 1997, remain unknown. Nine other activists were arrested and tortured at a military facility in 1998 and have claimed that at least six of the missing activists were held at the same facility.

A military inquiry set up in 1998 found that the nine men released had indeed been abducted by the military but found no evidence of military involvement in the enforced disappearance of the other 13. In 2009, the House recommended that the President form an ad hoc human rights court to try those responsible for these enforced disappearances. However, the recommendation has yet to be implemented.

"Those responsible have not been brought to justice and the victims' families continue to be denied the opportunity to establish the truth," Amnesty said, adding that the government must "initiate promptly an independent, impartial and effective investigation into the fate and whereabouts of the 13 disappeared political activists" and provide "reparations to all victims of enforced disappearance and/or their families".

"Enforced disappearance is a serious and cruel human rights violation; a violation of the rights of both the persons who were disappeared and of those who love them," Amnesty added.