Cindy Shiner, Jakarta – Francisca Sri Haryatni never spoke to her six children about the hardships she and others endured during the turbulent period leading up to and immediately following President Suharto's coming to power in the mid-1960s.

She didn't talk about how, while in labor with her first child, she had to walk a mile to the doctor because there was no transportation; how there was no milk for her newborn; how neighbors and friends disappeared or were killed in the anti-Communist purge that followed the unsuccessful coup that heralded Suharto's ascendancy.

"It was pointless. I didn't want to talk about the suffering of the past," said the slight, 63-year-old Sri Haryatni.

But she can no longer block out reminders of that painful era. Sri Haryatni's son, a political activist, has been missing for more than a month. Human rights workers say he has been jailed, but their search for him has been fruitless. They say he is among a growing number of government opponents who have disappeared, gone into hiding or been arbitrarily detained this year as the administration seeks to quell dissent during Indonesia's worst economic and political crisis since Suharto came to power 32 years ago. "I think it is the same now," Sri Haryatni said. "The government threatens its opponents now just like they faced the Communists. They only recognize parties or political activities on the side of the government."

Her son Pius Lustrilanang, 29, is secretary general of a group known as Siaga, a political coalition that supports two of Indonesia's most prominent opposition figures: Amien Rais and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno. Another Siaga leader, Ratna Sarumpaet, was arrested with eight other activists March 10 during a small pro-democracy demonstration.

Marzuki Darusman, deputy chairman of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, said it is "worrying" and "quite out of the ordinary" for such prominent activists as Lustrilanang and Sarumpaet to disappear or be detained. "Now and then we do have reports of people missing who are just the rank and file activists, but this time it's an official, or an officer of a movement," he said of Lustrilanang. "It does give out that signal that [authorities] are not taking these new groupings lightly and therefore these things can happen even to open and on-the-surface groups."

Amnesty International says there has been a "dramatic increase" in the number of political detentions this year. At least 140 people are in jail awaiting trial for involvement in political activities or demonstrations – including one against rising milk prices. Local human rights groups say about a dozen people have been reported missing – a loose term that usually means a person has been detained by security forces, gone into hiding or been abducted by shadowy, pro-government vigilante groups. "We are very worried about the situation, and we have been monitoring it quite closely for the past few months," said Kerry Brogan, Amnesty's researcher on Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

Local human rights workers also have been intimidated. They talk of harassing phone calls in the middle of the night and constant surveillance by intelligence agents. The home of one rights worker was stoned. Some political detainees have been roughed up and burned with cigarettes.

The last time the government cracked down on its opponents with similar vigor was in July 1996 when Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters was stormed. Sixteen people are still missing.

Last month, the government banned political gatherings and demonstrations during the week leading up to and following the 11-day meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly that appointed Suharto to a seventh five-year term. Political activity on college campuses was banned 20 years ago, but student protests are held almost daily across the country. Activists, however, rarely dare to leave campus to march down the streets to press their demands for political and economic reform. On the few occasions they have, security forces quickly intervened with truncheons. The military recently called for dialogue. "Until the last few years, people only whispered about politics," one student said. "They were afraid to speak out loud. They have been living in fear for the past 32 years."

In some cases, that fear has given way to anger and violence. Students recently burned an effigy of Suharto, which is considered a treasonable offense. Members of one banned political group, the Democratic People's Party, have been linked to at least one bomb blast in Jakarta and are suspected of assembling other small explosive devices in various parts of the country. "It's something that's relatively new here. You didn't have people trying to actively use violence," said one human rights worker. To deal with growing popular discontent, the government has begun dusting off old laws on subversion and political activity from the pre-Suharto era. "They seem to have difficulties referring to the existing laws, so they are looking into the archives and have found that apparently there is a law that is still in force that can be used to process borderline cases," said Darusman of the Commission on Human Rights.

At least one dates to 1963, when President Sukarno was struggling with his Communist opponents. The law stipulates that every political activity must be reported to the police and a permit issued for gatherings or demonstrations. Authorities also are trying people summarily or, in lesser cases, threatening to do so. Falling into this category are 129 people arrested during a peaceful demonstration more than a month ago in Jakarta. "They're holding them at a police station, and there seems to be a misunderstanding as to what kind of proper trial should take place," Darusman said. "The police want to try them at the police station, whereas legally they should be brought to court."

Nobody knows whether Francisca Sri Haryatni's son, Pius, has already been tried. She has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to help find him. In the meantime, Sri Haryatni displays the stoicism she learned in the pre-Suharto era.

"I'm proud of Pius because he's always on the right side in helping poor and disadvantaged people," she said. "And I don't feel as though I suffer because of his political activities as long as he speaks the truth."