Human Rights Watch said today that either senior army and police officials had lied in denying any knowledge of the whereabouts of "disappeared" activists who later turned out to have been in custody, or a secret military or paramilitary unit was operating without the knowledge of top-ranking officers. Either way, the "disappearances" reflected badly on the Indonesian government, the organization said. It called on the government to step up efforts to find and prosecute those responsible both for the disappearances and for the intimidation and harassment of the non-governmental organizations helping the disappeared and their families.
The Human Rights Watch statement came as some of the activists reappeared and began speaking publicly about their experiences in detention. Pius Lustrilanang, a pro-democracy activist who disappeared from February 4 until April 3, revealed earlier this morning that he had been abducted at gunpoint, tortured with electric shocks, beaten, and periodically submerged in water during his two months of captivity. He could not identify his captors, since he was either blindfolded or they were masked. He said a number of other `disappeared' had been detained in the same building, which he believed to be near an airport and not far from the Jakarta-Bogor toll road. The others detained, each of whom was held in a separate cell, included Desmond J. Mahesa and Haryanto Taslam, both of whom resurfaced earlier in the month and are back with their families, and Rahardjo Waluyo Djati and Faisol Reza, who are still missing.
"It is clear that the abductors of the `disappeared' political activists systematically and repeatedly violated Indonesian law," said Sidney Jones, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division. "How can the government expect students or anyone else to respect the law or the authority of the state when state security forces themselves engage in such flagrant human rights violations?"
Both police and military had repeatedly denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of a dozen mostly young activists, even after receiving appeals for information from family members and the National Human Rights Commission. While the armed forces _ which in Indonesia include the police _ are now believed to be holding the rest of the "disappeared," no one has been able to identify precisely who or what unit is responsible. In the case of Andi Arief, the student leader who reappeared in police custody after more than two weeks in the hands of the men who abducted him, the police must know who turned Andi over to them, but no information has been forthcoming.
On April 21, Andi Arief's parents received a call from national police headquarters in Jakarta that their son, missing since March 28, was being held there. Two days later, they received a formal detention order by post, saying that Andi Arief was being held both as a suspect in a subversion case and as a witness in the subversion case against two students charged with using explosives in connection with a homemade bomb that went off prematurely in an apartment in the Tanah Tinggi area of Jakarta on January 18, 1998. The order was backdated to March 29, but as late as last week, both police and army were denying any knowledge of Andi Arief's arrest. The twenty-eight-year-old head of Indonesia Student Solidarity for Democracy (Solidaritas Mahasiswa Indonesia untuk Demokrasi or SMID) had been abducted from his sister's house in Bandar Lampung by two men in plainclothes on March 28 at 10:30 a.m. The men, who were not in uniform, showed no identification, and produced no warrant, searched the shop, found Andi Arief, and took him away. They were part of a larger group that came to the shop in two Toyota Kijang vehicles. Andi's family reported the abduction to the provincial police command, the city police command, and the regional military command; all said they had no role in the arrest.
The Jakarta daily newspaper Kompas chronicled the military's repeated denial of any knowledge about the disappearances. On March 30, Brig. Gen. Abdul Wahab Mokodongun, the information officer of the Indonesian armed forces, said, "The armed forces has no connection with the disappearances. Every citizen, whether proven or suspected to have violated the law, will be prosecuted according to the law. There is no kidnapping on our part." The next day, he denied again that the armed forces, including the police, were detaining any of the missing. On April 3, he denied that the security forces were behind the disappearances. On April 8, the information officer for the police, Brig, Gen. (Pol) Drs. Sa'i Bachtiar, said the missing were probably in hiding. On April 16, the Jakarta military commander said he had ordered all his troops to help find the missing. Earlier that week, Brig. Gen. Mokodongan had said that instead of implying the military was responsible, the families and friends of the missing should register a formal missing persons report with the police, but he warned, "It's not the case that after you lose something, you automatically find it, so don't think that if you report something missing, it will automatically turn up." On April 22, the commander of the Indonesian police, Maj.Gen. (Pol) Dibyo Widodo, told reporters that the only missing people he knew about were the three who by that date had returned home: Pius Lustrilanang, Desmond J. Mahesa, and Haryanto Taslam. He was therefore publicly denying any knowledge of Andi Arief's whereabouts, when in fact, Andi Arief had been detained for five days in the same complex where Widodo works. On April 26, national police headquarters issued a statement that Andi Arief had been in police custody since March 29.
According to Mohamad Munir, the coordinator of the Jakarta-based Commission on Disappeared Persons and Victims of Violence who was able to visit Andi Arief on Thursday, Andi said he was blindfolded by his abductors after being taken from his sister's house on March 28. He was taken to the port of Bakahuni in Lampung where a ferry leaves regularly for West Java. Once on board the ferry, he was allowed to take the blindfold off but he was forced to put it back on after arriving in Merak harbor in Java. He was then driven to a place where he was interrogated non-stop for some twenty-four hours as a radio played constantly. Much of the interrogation focused on the activities of other disappeared activists, some of who appear to have been detained at the same place he was. Andi Arief was kept at the safehouse from March 29 to April 17 when he was transferred to national police headquarters on Jalan Trunjoyo, Kebayoran, South Jakarta. He was moved to the metropolitan Jakarta police command on April 25. He said he was not tortured or physically abused, although he was not allowed to see a lawyer until April 22, in violation of the Indonesian Criminal Procedure Code.
Desmond J. Mahesa, the head of the Jakarta office of the Nusantara Legal Aid Institute, was reported as missing from February 3 to April 3, when he suddenly appeared at his family's house in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. Last week, he decided to give a public account of what had happened to him. He said that on February 3, he had been at the office of the Indonesian Christian Youth Movement (Gerakan Mahasiswa Kristen Indonesia or GMKI) on Jalan Salemba in Jakarta around 3:10 p.m., when four or five men, all wearing dark glasses, approached him and told him to get in a waiting car. Once in the car, he was blindfolded and driven around for three or four hours, although he said he had a feeling it was all within Jakarta. Eventually, the car stopped at a building, and Desmond was taken to a room where he was told to rest. The blindfold was removed; it was about 7:00 p.m. A little later, one of the men in dark glasses knocked at the door to the room, blindfolded Desmond again, and invited him to eat. Desmond said the building seemed deserted except for the men and himself; he could not tell whether it was a home or an office. After the meal was finished, the men began interrogating Desmond about his activities as a lawyer and his political involvement. He said for the most part, the interrogation was polite, but the interrogators got angry when he said he was not identified with any party (they appear to have been trying to link him to the banned People's Democratic Party or PRD). He was interrogated every night thereafter for one to two hours and had nothing to do during the day except to eat and sleep. Any time he left his room, the blindfold was put back on. At 11:00 a.m. on April 3, he was taken out of the building and told to get in a car. After a short distance, the blindfold was removed, he was given an airplane ticket from Jakarta to Banjarmasin, his home town, and he was dropped off at the airport. The ticket was made out in the name of "Fahmi."
Other activists still missing but also believed to be in military custody include three students from Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Herman Hendrawan, Faisol Reza, and Rahardjo Waluyo Djati, who disappeared after attending a press conference in the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta. Both Desmond Mahesa and Andi Arief were questioned about the activities of the three during their own interrogations. Hermawan, twenty-eight, is a political science student; Faisol Reza, twenty-five, studies philosophy; and Rahardjo, aged twenty-nine, is a literature student. On April 17, the head of the East Java police, Maj. Gen. (Pol) Mochamad Dayat, was quoted in the newspaper Kompas as saying that Herman had returned but his friends and family have had no word of him.
Suyat, a SMID activist and student from Solo, has been missing since February 12, 1998. According to Suyat's brother, five men who were not in uniform and showed no identification but said in response to a question that they were "officers" (petugas) came to the family's house in Gemolong, Sragen, Central Java at about 2:00 a.m. on February 12, looking for Suyat. The family said he was not at home, but the men entered anyway and began searching the house. When they could not find Suyat, according to an April 16 account in the Surabaya newspaper, Jawa Pos, the men took away his brother, Suyatno. After being interrogated in an unknown place, Suyatno told human rights workers that he was blindfolded and tied up and then brought to the house of one of Suyat's friends in Karanganyar, outside Solo, then to the house of another friend in Kalijambe, Sragen, where Suyat was staying. The five men took Suyat away and dropped off Suyatno on the outskirts of Sumber village. No one has seen or heard from Suyat since.
Petrus Bima Anugerah, known as Bimo, aged twenty-five, is a student at the Driyakara School of Philosophy in Jakarta and a member of the militant political organization, the People's Democratic Party (PRD). He has not been seen or heard from since March 31. His father officially reported him missing to the national police command on April 12. Three other PRD activists initially reported as missing are reported to be detained in the metropolitan Jakarta police command, and Bimo's friends believe he may be in custody as well.
Marah Simon, aged forty-nine, has been missing since early March 1998. The head of the West Sumatra branch of the pro-Megawati Soekarnoputri faction of the Indonesian Democratic Party, Simon left Padang, West Sumatra, for Jakarta on February 25 with five other Megawati supporters. About five days later, the five returned to Padang but Marah Simon told them he was staying behind to attend the wedding of Megawati's daughter onMarch 3. On March 7, his family received a letter from him saying he was fine. The family thought the letter was peculiar and out of character for Marah Simon to send; they have not heard from him since. His fate seems similar to that of Haryanto Taslam, another official of the pro-Megawati faction of PDI, who disappeared in early March and reappeared in East Java on April 17. He is believed to have been in military custody but thus far, he has not been willing to say what happened to him.
The disappearances have caused outrage at home and abroad. The National Human Rights Commission, whose members encouraged Pius Lustrilanang to come forward with his story and offered him protection, has been particularly outspoken. A spokesman in Jakarta on April 23 said the practice of disappearing people was in violation of the law and must be brought to an end, since among other things, it created a culture of fear. Albert Hasibuan, a Comission member, said there was a clear pattern to the recent wave of disappearances, up to and including the practice of blindfolding the victim at the time of capture. He said the Commission would be speaking with officers at national police headquarters to try to determine who was responsible and said those involved could be sued or tried in a special court. The new Minister of Justice, Muladi, has also called on the government to give an official explanation of the disappearances.
In another disturbing development, there have been reported attempts to kidnap individuals working on behalf of the disappeared, including a Roman Catholic priest, Father Sandyawan, and other activists have been threatened. Four people associated with the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta have been terrorized, according to the institute's director, who did not give their names out of concern for their security. Pius Lustrilanang said that during his captivity, he was questioned not only about his activities on behalf of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's first president who has become an opposition leader, but also about the activities of nongovernmental organizations.
