Kompas - January 23,
2010
Kompas – The families of
the victims of forced disappearances in 1997-1998 are hoping that the
government will soon form a team to search for the 13 people still missing. It
is hoped that this demand will be fulfilled before the end of the 100 hundred
days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono administration.
"The search for the
[missing] victims must be a priority, in addition to which we are also awaiting
the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court, as mandated by the DPR's
[House of Representatives] plenary meeting," said Indonesian Association
of the Families of Missing Persons (IKOHI) chairperson Mugiyanto in Jakarta on
Friday January 22.
The 2004-2009 DPR issued a
recommendation for an investigation into the activists forcibly abducted in
1997-1998. There were four points in the recommendation, namely that the
president immediately form an ad hoc human rights court, that a search be
conducted for the 13 people declared still missing by the National Human Rights
Commission, rehabilitate and provide compensation to the families of the
victims and that the government ratify the International Convention on Forced
Disappearances.
From earlier experiences
and the experiences in other countries, said Mugiyanto, the process of forming
an ad hoc human rights court can be long and drawn out. Never mind that
President Yudhoyono has not yet issued a presidential decree on the matter.
"This is the reason we want the search for the 13 victims to be a priority
in the formation of an independent team", he said.
The team, said Mugiyanto,
could use as a reference the Munir Fact Finding Team, or the Team of Eight that
was formed to investigate the case involving Corruption Eradication Commission
deputies Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah. "Part of the team's
membership must be civil figures with credibility, who have a good track record
and can access the locations that are suspected to have been used to detain the
disappeared," he said.
Commission for Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Usman Hamid added that
there are no longer any grounds for the government not to implement the DPR's recommendations
on the abduction and disappearance of people in 1997-1998.
"I the era of the Gus
Dur [former President Abdurrahman Wahid] administration, 28 days after the DPR
issued a recommendation to investigate the Tanjung Priok [shootings in 1984], a
presidential decree on the matter was produced. So why has is it now become so
drawn out and protracted", said Hamid. (AIK)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
