ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES IN INDONESIA
 

By: Mugianto
IKOHI (Indonesian Association of Disappeared Persons)

Friends, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters:

In behalf of IKOHI—the Indonesian Association of Disappeared Persons—I thank the organizers of this Conference, KontraS and AFAD, for the time given to our organization.

IKOHI was set up by KontraS and the families of victims of involuntary disappearances at the end of 1998. The aim is to empower surfaced desaparecidos and the victims’ parents and family members through their active participation in the daily activities of the organization in its campaign to uphold democracy and human rights and in its struggle against enforced disappearance.

Supported by KontraS, the parents and family members of desaparecidos in Indonesia initiated the formation of IKOHI. KontraS’ role is due to its reputation, credibility and trust from the people; hence, most people contact KontraS asking for legal assistance and support for any case of human rights violation. Because of this, KontraS had to widen its scope by including other forms of human rights abuse and not only limiting its advocacy to involuntary disappearance.

KontraS is a relatively strong human rights coalition composed of various NGOs and student organizations. Based on that situation, KontraS supported the initiative of surfaced victims and their parents and family members to set up IKOHI. The formation of this organization was actually inspired by the experience in other countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Kashmir and Latin America. The organization is not only composed of human rights advocates, lawyers and other cultural activists but mostly and most importantly, surfaced victims, parents and family members.

That is the reason why we set up IKOHI. KontraS is too big and too wide to campaign against involuntary disappearance on its own.

Until now, IKOHI has many obstacles, although KontraS has already given tremendous assistance. Most of the obstacles are on the weak organizational capacity of the members and the scattered location of the victims’ family members—some of our leaders live in Malang, in East Java, Aceh, West Papua, etc.

This is the reason why KontraS and our organization convened a workshop last November 4 and 5 to consolidate IKOHI. The said activity was attended by lawyers, surfaced victims and parents and family members of desaparecidos and tackled the cases of enforced disappearance that occurred or are still occurring in Aceh, West Papua, Lampung, Tanjung Priok and in other parts of the country. The 1965 massacre of Indonesia’s Leftist forces was also discussed. This workshop last November, which included most regions in Indonesia, is the biggest activity organized by KontraS and IKOHI so far.

One of the recommendations of the workshop was to further consolidate IKOHI which is hampered by the obstacles I just mentioned. The workshop also led to the formation of a working team that would run the organization until January. We are also planning to carry out another workshop or public meeting for a bigger and more serious consolidation.

IKOHI is still weak, although it is not actually a new organization. KontraS was set up in April 1998 and IKOHI was formed at the end of 1998. But because of some obstacle or weaknesses, we are not able to run the organization in a more professional way, like FIND and the other organizations. We are also, at the moment, unable to carry out documentation and investigation-work. That is why, this is actually an opportunity for us—for IKOHI—to introduce our organization to all the delegates from the different countries and for them to know that in Indonesia, there is an organization aside from KontraS, set up by the victims and their family members themselves to eradicate involuntary disappearance. In the future, when we are certain that our organization is professional enough, we shall strive to become a member of AFAD. And for that, we need your support.
 

Thank you.