By James Balowski
Wherever there have been dictatorships and resistance to them, the tactic of making people disappear has been used, not just to get rid of problematic individuals, but also as a way of terrorising the broader population, intimidating them out of resisting their oppression.
Indonesia under the rule of President Suharto is no exception.
When Suharto seized power in 1965, thousands of political opponents were "disappeared", at least 1 million Communists and left-wing sympathisers were massacred and many more were interned without trial for long periods.
In 1984, dozens of people were killed and injured when troops fired on anti-government Muslim demonstrators in Tanjung Priok, north Jakarta. Independent investigators say around 600 people "never returned home".
More than 200 people are still missing after the 1991 Dili massacre in East Timor. Witnesses say the military used bulldozers to cover mass graves of those rounded up and killed in the days after the massacre.
According to a 1992 report by Asia Watch, thousands of separatist guerillas in Aceh, North Sumatra, were killed and disappeared between 1989 and 1994. Human rights organisations say that hundreds of bodies were secretly buried in shallow graves.
In 1993, more than 8000 people — most "petty criminals" — were disappeared during a campaign known as "Petrus", which Suharto later described in his 1989 autobiography as "firm measures ... for the purpose of shock therapy".
Scores are still unaccounted for after the military attacked pro-Megawati Indonesian Democratic Party supporters on July 27, 1996.
Indonesia has signed, but not ratified, the 1987 UN Convention Against Torture. The US State Department in its 1992 country report on Indonesia concluded, "Torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects, detainees and prisoners are common, and the legal protections are violated by the government".
Ominous trend
According to Amnesty International, 371 people have been detained for peaceful political activity since January 1, and 140 are still in custody.
But a much more ominous trend is emerging. According to the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBH), at least 12 activists have been disappeared since January, six following clashes between students and riot police at a demonstration in Yogyakarta on April 3.
The most recent case occurred in Lampung, South Sumatra. An April 14 press release by LBH Lampung stated that a youth named Jauhari died as a result of torture after being abducted by members of the Mobile Brigade. His mother told the foundation that he had bruises on his head, neck, chest, back and lower stomach.
This is not first case of its kind in Lampung, the site of massive anti-Suharto demonstrations which began on March 18. On March 28, Andi Arief, chairperson of Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy, which is affiliated to the outlawed People's Democratic Party (PRD), was abducted at gunpoint. He has not been seen or heard from since.
Even Suharto's own Human Rights Commission, which is investigating the cases, has expressed concern. Commission member Albert Hasibuan said recently, "The state apparatus must find these people to prevent a repeat of what happened in Latin America".
The April 20 issue of Time magazine, in an article titled "Problems that just disappear", quoted Bonar Tigor, director of the Indonesian Society for Humanity, that the abductions bear all the hallmarks of the military. The abductors, while not in uniform, carry guns, an act prohibited except for police and soldiers.
In one case, as the victim was being beaten and dragged off, two soldiers tried to intervene. The abductors waved ID cards, and the soldiers immediately joined in the beating.
The military has denied any involvement and claims it is a plot to discredit it. On April 12, territorial commander Major General Mardiyanto told the Jakarta daily Kompas, "I have never given an order to abduct students". He asserted that the media like to sensationalise and asserted that students "don't stay at home, but somewhere else. Is that disappearing?"
Regional military commander Major General Auadi Atma was quoted in the April 13 Sydney Morning Herald as asking, "Does everybody who is well built with short hair come from the armed forces?".
Human rights campaigners, however, say that the authorities have given tacit approval to the disappearances. Kerry Brogan from Amnesty International told Time: "The government has a responsibility to prevent such practices, but there's no evidence that it's doing that ... which suggests that the government doesn't mind".
Nor is it any coincidence that the disappeared are political activists. Sources from the underground PRD say that at least seven of their members are now missing.
According to the March 31 independent news service SiaR, many believe the disappearances are being carried out by military intelligence. SiaR said that Suharto's son-in-law, General Prabowo Subianto, recently formed a "death squad" from members of the elite military command, Kopassus.
Kopassus troops — who receive training in Australia — are also at the forefront of the brutal occupation of East Timor.
SiaR said that pro-democracy groups have distributed a list of 50 people who have become "operational targets" of the military and are to be disappeared.
On April 3, Desmond Mahesa, director of LBH Nusantara, and Pius Lustrilanang, secretary general of the People's Democratic Alliance, both of whom disappeared in early February, returned home. Both have refused to talk publicly about where they were, but human rights lawyers say the two have indicated that they were not "voluntarily absent".
Protests continue
Despite the terror and repression, student protests have continued.
On April 14, Kompas reported demonstrations at five universities in Bandung, West Java. At the Udayana University in Denpasar, Bali, demonstrating students collected donations of money and rice for the poor. In Ujung Padang, South Sulawesi, 300 students demonstrated at the Hasanuddin University. In Malang, East Java, around 100 students tried to leave the campus but were turned back by troops.
In West Sumatra, students from five universities and one high school organised a demonstrations at the Andalas University in Padang. Coordinated by the West Sumatra Student Communication Forum, students demanded political and economic reform.
They also rejected Suharto's reappointment as president and his acceptance of the IMF "reforms". As in some previous demonstrations, an effigy of Suharto was burned.
On April 16, Kompas said, thousands of students demonstrated at 30 campuses in Jakarta and the satellite cities of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi. Again, when students tried to march to other universities, they were blocked by troops.
Students from the Padjajaran University trying to march to the Indonesian Cooperative Institute clashed with security forces. Two were wounded.
At a university in Solo, Central Java, students and police pelted each other with rocks.
Attempts by the regime to hold a "dialogue" with students have largely failed. In mid-March, armed forces chief Wiranto called on student representatives to meet and "resolve the issue". No-one turned up. According to the official news agency Antara, on April 12 Wiranto did meet with 32 youth organisations, all of them affiliated to the state party, Golkar.
Australian media reports of the disappearances have done little to sway Suharto's staunch supporters in the Australian government and "opposition".
On April 8, Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown moved a motion expressing concern about the arrest and disappearance of four PRD activists — Mugianto, Nesar Patria, Aan Rusdianto and Andi Arief — last month.
Brown's motion was not controversial. It simply called on Suharto "to ensure the safety and release of all four persons unless they are quickly brought to an early, fair and open trial in which their full legal rights are met".
Nevertheless, only the nine Green and Democrat senators voted for it. Every one of the 35 Liberal, National and Labor Party senators (including so-called Labor "left" senators such as Margaret Reynolds and John Faulkner) voted against this call for respect for the basic democratic rights of Indonesians!