Jakarta – After more than two years of waiting as a result of unclear stories, Diah Sujirah, the wife of a young poet and member of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), have finally reported the disappearance of Wiji Thukul to the Committee of the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras)

Sujirah and Wiji's younger brother Wahyu's last contact with Wiji was by phone on February 19, 1998. It is suspected that Thukul was a victim of the abductions along with other activists which disappeared in Solo [Central Java].

In Jakarta on Friday (31/3), Kontras coordinator Munarman explained that according to the information which had been gathered, during the months of March and April 1998, Thukul was still meeting with a number of his friends but after that no more news was heard.

"We suspect that the disappearance of Wiji Thukul around March 1998 is linked with his [political] activities. That time coincided with a increase in the repressive operations of the New Order regime in an effort to cleanse political activism which challenged the New Order. With the disappearance of Wiji Thukul, the cleansing operation [has resulted in] 23 people who have disappeared and up until this time 14 people, including Wiji, have yet to return", said Munarman.

The chairperson of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko, explained that at the time of the mass cleansing of democracy activists in the wake of the bloody tragedy of July 27, 1996 (1), Wiji Thukul, who had become one of the primary targets of the cleansing, was able to escape.

He was hunted by the security forces while in Solo, then Salatiga, Jakarta, even when he was being hidden in Serpon, Tangerang [an industrial zone on the outskirts of Jakarta].

According to Budiman, the is a strong possibility that Thukul became of the victims of the sweep operation of activists in Solo along with Suyat (2) who up until this time has not returned, and a victim of the abductions who was then freed, Wawan.

Thukul, who was born on August 23, 1963, in Solo, attended school up until level II at the Karawitan State High School, he then became active in art and cultural [activism] and joined the [PRD affiliated] People's Art Network (Jaker).

Thukul was known as a writer of poems of struggle. One of the sentences which is best known is the last line of a poem titled Warning, that is "There is only one word: Resist!".

Notes

1. Following Megawati Sukarnoputri's popular election as chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) in 1996, the Suharto regime, who feared a PDI led Megawati (who could draw upon the tremendous popularity of her father Sukarno, the founding president of Indonesia) might threaten the state party Golkar's dominance in the upcoming 1997 elections, sponsored a rebel PDI congress in Medan, North Sumatra, and succeeded in replacing her with their own pro-regime candidate, Suryadi. Following weeks of protests and the occupation of party's headquarters in central Jakarta by pro-Megawati PDI supporters, on July 27 paid thugs backed by the military attacked and destroyed the PDI offices resulting in the death of as many as 50 people. Popular outrage at the attack sparked several days of mass rioting and violent clashes with police which was blamed on the PRD, who's members were hunted down and arrested as the masterminds behind the riots.
2. Suyat, a university student from Solo who was active in the PRD affiliated student organisation Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (SMID), has been missing since February 12, 1998.