Imron Rosyid, Solo – The families of activists abducted in 1997-1998 are calling on the House of Representatives (DPR) to summon President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) following a statement by the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM), Abdul Hakim Garuda Nasution, that Yudhoyono has information pertaining to the fate of the activists which after years and years has still not been clarified.
Sipon, the widow of Wiji Thukul, a People Democratic Party (PRD) activist who disappeared in 1998, said that in addition to seeking information, the summoning of the president by the DPR would also be used to question the commitment of the Attorney General. “The key now lies with the president and the DPR”, Sipon told Tempo on Wednesday February 7.
According to Sipon, she is convinced that the president has a great deal of information on the fate of the abducted activists. She said that currently there are no other avenues that the families of the victims can pursue except to ask the president to be candid in revealing all the information that he has.
“The president is a former military general right, who at the time the abductions occurred was an important person. It is impossible that SBY doesn’t know. Now it depends on whether he is willing or not. The DPR and the president must cooperate in uncovering this issue”, she said.
Earlier Komnas HAM had said it believed that Yudhoyono has information about the fate of the activists abducted in 1997-1998. When the abductions took place, Yudhoyono was the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) head of Social and Political Affairs and was once a member of the TNI’s Honorary Council, which questioned a military officer suspected being involved in the abductions. “So SBY could provide information because [he] had once been a member of the honorary council”, said Nusantara during a public hearing with the DPR’s Legal Commission yesterday.
Sipon herself admits to being pessimistic that what happened to her husband and is friends will be uncovered saying she believes that the reluctance on the part of the Attorney General to accept a report from Komnas HAM is a sign that the gross human rights violations will be put on ice. She says that what happened to her husband may not be very different from the fate suffered by activists during the slaughter in 1965, which to date has still has yet to be revealed. “At most it will be put on ice like the 1965 cases if the president doesn’t intervene”, she said.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
