Hestiana Dharmastuti/Hendra & LM, Jakarta – The blame for the disappearance of four activists from the parliament grounds is being laid in many quarters. This time, Jhonson Panjaitan and Munir of the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (Kontras) have stated that there are similarities in the case with the forced disappearances of democracy activists in the final days of the Suharto regime.
Speaking in the lobby of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (YLBHI) building Monday, Munir and Jhonson said that many people were to blame for the crime. They made a point of shifting the focus of allegations from Chief of Parliamentary Security, Superintendent Setiono, to the Chief of Jakarta Police, Nurfaizi, Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tanjung and Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, Amien Rais.
"Nurfaizi, Amien and Akbar must take responsibility for the abduction of the four agrarian activists from Bandung. Because it was they who made the agreements on security at the Annual Session," Munir said.
As reported widely, the four activists from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform on a hunger strike were removed from the parliament grounds on Monday night. They were demanding that agrarian reform be prioritised in the annual session.
Jhonson, the chief legal advisor for the Consortium for Agrarian Reform, said the abduction was intended as a kind of shock-therapy because the four were leaders of an organisation struggling for the rights of peasants.
Munir added that there was a clear pattern in recent cases and that the Chief of the Jakarta Police, Nurfaizi, had been suspected of involvement in other similar cases. Several years ago, before former president Suharto was ousted on the tide of a popular uprising, Nurfaizi was also under suspicion in the disappearance of Andi Arief and other leaders of the pro-democracy movement.
Kontras is also investigating these cases and believes that the activists were abducted by one arm of the security forces and then handed over to more convert arms such as the Army's Special Forces, or Kopassus.
"Suspicions are growing clearer because Nurfaizi's explanations bear a striking resemblance to his statements in previous cases," Munir said. "The abduction pattern is also the same. There's an instrument which took them and then handed them over to another," he added.
Munir also rejected claims by Naifurzi that the activists are in hiding. This was not possible he said because their commitment to their organisation was high and the suggestion was simply unreasonable.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Consortium, Dianto Bahriadi, said the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais must take responsibility because the abductions occurred at the Assembly building.
Members of victim's family were also present at the YLBI offices, namely Euis Nurfaidah, Usep's wife, M Hafis' mother, Adham R Afiat, and Anton Sutan's mother, Siti Komariah as well as his elder brother Idham K Yun Primawan. They asked for the police to provide information on their whereabouts and hoped that they would soon be returned.