Musliadis� body was found in a ditch on 4 December 2002, four days earlier he had been kidnapped by armed men while 

he was breaking fast with friends during the holy month of Ramadan. His body showed extensive signs of torture with 

numerous burns to his tongue and face the result of electrodes being placed against his skin. Eyewitnesses said that 

men carrying military issue SS1 machine guns and sporting military style haircuts forced him into a waiting van. A graduate 

of the School of Economics at Aceh University, had been an advocate and campaigner against the violence committed by 

the Indonesia army (TNI) in Aceh. He was 26. 

After the fall of Suharto in May 1998 Indonesians and foreigners alike believed that political and social freedoms would 

increase. The president before Megawati Sukarnoputri, Abdurrahman Wahid, enacted some promising legislation including 

the Law on Human Rights and the Law on Human Rights Courts. Also press freedoms, except in Aceh, are greater. However 

suppression of dissent against the state is something the current government has inherited from Suharto�s regime. 

A spokesman from the Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Foundation, PBHI, believes the government is using 

repressive laws to silence activists who are vocal in their criticism of the government. In an ironic twist the government of 

Megawati Sukarnoputri has been using the same legislation to crush anti-government sentiment that Suharto used against 

her party, PDI-P, before his fall from power. Laws such as those prohibiting �public expression of feelings of hostility, hatred 

or contempt toward the government", �insulting� the President or Vice-President and laws which punish anyone who 

"disseminates, demonstrates openly or puts up a writing or portrait containing an insult against the president or 

vice-president." are regularly used against protestors. These laws were based on Dutch colonial laws and some claim the 

only difference was changing the word King to President. When the Suharto regime fell the laws remained in place. 

Successive post Suharto governments have not reformed these laws which are now being used across Indonesia to 

suppress peaceful protest. 

Since Megawati Sukarnoputri, who dubbed herself the �President of the poor� during the last election, became president, 

over 200 activists have been arrested. The charges include 'Insulting Symbols of the State', 'Insulting the President/Vice 

President'. Reinardt, a member of the National Students League for Democracy believes the clock is turning back to 

Suharto times when activists had little freedom to oppose the government. On 30 March 2003, the Commission for the 

Disappeared and the Victims of Violence, KONTRAS, reported that �nothing significant has happened in terms of resolving 

the cases of involuntary disappearances� in the past year, and �such violations continue to happen�. On the 25 March, 

Mukhlis Ishak and Zulfikar were forced into the back of a van by plain-clothes men while demonstrating in Bireuen District, 

Aceh. Neither has been seen since. Both were members of Links for Community Development, which advocates for 

internally displaced persons. An eyewitness identified one of the kidnappers as an officer with the intelligence unit SGI, 

named Karno. The military denies having any prisoners named Mukhlis or Zulfikar, and also denies it has an officer named 

Karno. The parents of both men have traveled to Jakarta to argue their case with the government. 

While deaths of activists do occur, jail terms of up to five years are more common. Nanang Mamija an activist from Jakarta 

was arrested in July last year for �insulting the President and Vice President�. He was asleep at his parent�s house when 

the police came and took him to the cells. The police failed to read him his rights when he was arrested. Nanang and his 

friend Mazukkir had performed a theatrical street play several days before, at the end of which photos of the President and 

Vice President were stood on and smeared with rice and rotten fish in order to highlight the problems of the poor. Eight days 

later the police arrested Mazukkir and then Nanang a day later. Both were sentenced to 1 year in Cipinang Correctional 

Institution. 

Unbelievably it is also the defenders of these human rights activists that are the target of both physical and verbal attacks. 

The offices of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights have been the target of two violent attacks since 

May 2002 for its outspoken criticism of the military and police. KONTRAS, had its offices attacked on three occasions. 

On May 27 this year, 100 - 150 uniformed members of the group PPM attacked the offices. During the attack two KONTRAS 

leaders, Ori Rahman and Usman Hamid, were forced to sing the national anthem, then beaten and kicked along with 

some of their staff and later the office was ransacked by PPM members using stones and chairs.  Three KONTRAS staff 

members were taken to hospital to treat injuries. Police were present during the attack but did nothing to stop the attackers, 

later saying the numbers were too great. PPM (Pemuda Panca Marga) or Youth of Military Veterans, comprises the 

relatives of former members of the Armed Forces. A spokesman for PBHI, which has had threats and intimidation directed 

at is office in Jakarta believes the perpetrators have difficulty understanding the role of PBHI and other human rights 

defenders. The spokesman, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes the attackers see PBHI and other human rights 

groups as a threat to the nation of Indonesia and as people who agree with the ideology of groups like GAM in Aceh. 

Comments from the chief of the Indonesian military, General Endriartono Sutarto, have done little to ease the tensions. 

After the attack on the KONTRAS office he said, 'This is a negative excess, perhaps, by people who just got tired of 

KONTRAS, who always have negative perceptions about the government's actions. While it may be true that attacking the 

organization is against the law ... maybe they (KONTRAS) should look at themselves in the mirror.'

Currently the New Zealand government is forging strong ties the Indonesian Police force, POLRI. As at July 2003 the NZ 

government has two police representatives at the New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta. Their role is to make friends and build 

relationships with various levels within the Indonesian force. It is apparent that the military and police are making changes 

to their operations in an attempt to clean up their act. The police are changing all they�re ranks from military to police and 

seven TNI soldiers went on trial in June for beating civilians. The POLRI chief, Dai Baschtiar, had a lawsuit filed against him 

in for alleged complicity with the brutal kidnappers of a student activist in 1998. And POLRI command of the feared and 

revered BRIMOB, an elite Police squad whose personnel are suspected of several human rights violations in Aceh. A 

New Zealand Embassy police spokesman believes that the POLRI are trying hard to overcome their problems. However 

Amnesty International believes that "disappearances", arbitrary detention and torture� are commonplace in Indonesia and 

UNCHR has said �torture continues to be practised widely and with impunity by the military, police, paramilitary groups and 

agents of political parties� in Indonesia.

On March 30 2003 KONTRAS took their demands to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, UNCHR. 

KONTRAS is asking the UNCHR to pressure the Indonesian government to invite a UN working group, to investigate 

cases of disappearances. KONTRAS has also called on the international community to monitor the resolution of 

involuntary disappearances.  Perhaps there are two courses of action for the international community, ignore the abuses, 

as happened in East Timor for 25 years or use its power to demand change from the Indonesian government. 

With Suharto�s sun-in-law and former commander of the Special Forces, Subianto Prabowo, a possible presidential 

candidate for GOLKAR, one of the largest parties on the Indonesian political scene, it appears some of the old dogs of 

Suharto�s time are still around and making a comeback.

Words; copyright Myles Green 2003