Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers were involved in the disappearances of pro-democracy activists earlier this year, the Commander of the Armed Forces, General Wiranto, has conceded after months of official denials that the military was linked to the abductions, torture and illegal detentions.

General Wiranto, who is also Defence Minister, said yesterday that the interim results of an internal military investigation had found that troops – acting outside of military procedures – were involved in the kidnappings.

"So far the [military] fact-finding team has tried to get inputs from the victims and we have also co-operated with human rights organisations and visited suspicious places linked to the kidnapping process," he said. "The interim findings are that it can be assumed that in this case there are some military personnel involved who have acted outside the procedure." He said the military would "intensify" its co-operation with the Indonesian Human Rights Commission to produce a "transparent" result of the inquiry.

The existence of a secret interrogation centre where torture was being used against the political opponents of the then Soeharto government was first revealed in evidence to the rights commission by activists who had been forcibly taken there. Nine activists are still missing.

[On July 3, the Jakarta Post reported ABRI spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif, as saying the military police had questioned 40 ABRI members for their alleged involvement in the abductions. He did not mention the names, ranks or units of the suspects. The report said that human rights groups believe that ABRI has already identified the perpetrators and where they were detained. According to the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence at least 12 are still "missing" - James Balowski.]