TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Muhammad Nurkhoiron, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the commission was presently looking into the case of the murders of dukun santet (shamans) in 1998 in East Java.
He said the commission suspected the case involved human rights violations, allowing for its numerous victims.
The killings of the shamans were purportedly committed by people dressed as ninjas able to disappear mysteriously at once.
“We are still investigating the possibilities of systematic killings in the case,” he told Tempo on Thursday, February 12, 2015 in Banyuwangi, East Java.
According to the data from Nahdlatul Ulama Banyuwangi chapter, a total of 119 people in the regency were killed in the case, which took place between the era of then President Soeharto’s New Order regime and the reform transition period. The figure excludes dead victims from Jember, Malang and other regions in the vicinity of Banyuwangi.
Nurkhoiron said the data from the East Java administration described the so-called ninjas as highly-trained, with exceptional sprinting, disguise and escaping skills. He added not even the police dare catch them. “It’s impossible if they were not of a trained group,” he said.
MUHAMMAD MUHYIDDIN
