Jakarta – A team set up by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to probe into the abductions of prodemocracy activists during the regime of former dictator Soeharto has come to conclusion that all the victims had died.
The team has also identified a number of suspects involved in the kidnapping of the 12 activists – mostly students – during the 1997-1998 period.
"We have determined that the cases can be categorized as a gross human rights abuse. Also, we have identified the suspects, including the masterminds," team member Martono said on Sunday.
However, he refused to disclose the number or names of the suspects. Earlier, the team was told by witnesses that the abduction victims had all been seen at military facilities.
Martono, also a legal expert from the East Java-based Surabaya University, said the team finalized the investigation with the help of a suspected "field operator" who testified about the kidnapping operation.
Martono declined to name the informant. "We don't know the reasons why this man (the informant) came and testified before us about the operation. The most important thing is that his information has helped us find out that none of the 12 activists survived," he said. The whereabouts of the activists' bodies were still a mystery.
The informant also told the team that the 12 activists were mostly affiliated to the Democratic People's Party (PRD), a political group of youths that staunchly campaigned against Soeharto's New Order regime, and others who supported his then-political opponent Megawati Soekarnoputri who then led the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
However, based on a report by the group of families and relatives of the missing persons (IKOHI), there were at least 14 people, not 12, who disappeared during the same period, including Yani Afri and Sonny, both drivers involved in pro-Megawati campaigns against the Soeharto rule.
The remaining 12 were Deddy Hamdun, Noval Alkatiri and Ismail – all loyalists of the United Development Party (PPP), Suyat, Herman Hendrawan, Petrus Bima Anugerah, M. Yusuf, Ucok Munandar Siahaan, Yadin Muhidin, Hendra Hambali and street singer and poet Widji Thukul – all PRD activists, as well as Abdun Nasser, a contractor who went missing during the riots of May 1998.
The team presented its report during a plenary session of Komnas HAM in August, and was awaiting a hearing with lawmakers before filing it to prosecutors.
"I think our team and lawmakers will be engaged in a rigorous debate as to whether the case should legally proceed. But no matter what the political decision is, I believe that the dark side of the country's history can not be hidden for much longer," Martono was quoted by Antara as saying.
Law No. 26/2000 stipulates that the establishment of a human rights tribunal to try such a case requires the political approval of the House of Representatives.
Other cases of human rights abuses, including the Trisakti incident on May 12, 1998, and the Semanggi I and Semanggi II incidents on Oct. 13,1998 and on Sept. 24, 1998, have never gone to court as the House earlier declared those three incidents could not be categorized as gross human rights abuses.
Martono said the modus operandi of the abduction cases showed similarities with the Trisakti shootings and May riots, with the only differences "the role of the field operators".
"The point is that these incidents had strong correlations: The masterminds were those who insisted on keeping their political hold on the country; the same people the reform movement had disgraced," he said.