Jakarta – An outspoken human rights group said Tuesday that it feared a key suspect in a case of mass murder in West Aceh may have been kidnapped to prevent an upcoming trial of the case.
Coordinator of the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Munir, said he feared Army Lieutenant Colonel Sujono could have been abducted.
Sujono, who has been missing for at least a week, is one of 20 military men and civilians scheduled to stand trial this month for allegedly shooting down 56 Acehnese in West Aceh.
"There is a big possibility that he [Sujono] might have been kidnapped in order to eliminate the link with his commanding officers," Munir told AFP.
The trial is to start before the end of February, of 20 people accused of lining up and shooting dead an Islamic boarding school teacher, his wife and students – in all 56 people – in Beutong Ateuh in West Aceh. The local military command at the time described the incident as an "exchange of fire" and said the teacher, Tengku Bantaqiah, was allied to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Sujono had been the intelligence assistant with the Lilawangsa regional military command in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, which also oversees the western Aceh district.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman was quoted by the Jakarta Post daily Tuesday as saying Sujono was named as suspect on Monday, and that his whereabouts were "still being investigated by the Indonesian military (TNI)." Darusman told the newspaper Sujono had been in Jakarta "when he was being investigated, but when he was summoned, he disappeared."
Munir said Kontras had unsuccesfully tried to confirm Sujono's whereabouts with his family. "Several sources in the military told us that the possibility of a Lieutenant Colonel deserting is too remote ... and his neighbors said [Sujono] has not been seen in three weeks," he said.
Munir said it was unclear whether Sujono had ever been held in military detention, adding TNI chief Admiral Widodo Adisucipto must explaine Sujono's whereabouts "as part of the TNI's commitment to uphold human rights." Until late Monday Sujono was referred to by Darusman and the military as a "key witness" and not a suspect in the killings.
Bringing human rights violators to trial has been a major demand of the GAM which has been fighting for an independent Islamic sultanate since the mid-1970s. A decade of harsh military operations against the GAM, which ended only in 1998, and the syphoning off of the province's resources, has fuelled resentment against Jakarta.