RIGHTS-INDONESIA: Political Will to Nail Killers of Top Activist Missing

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Fabio Scarpello

JAKARTA, Oct 8 2006 (IPS) - Human rights activists are accusing the government of lacking political will to nail the murderers of one Indonesia’s leading anti-corruption activists – poisoned on board a Garuda flight to Amsterdam in September 2004.

In an interview with IPS, Agung Yudhawiranata, programme coordinator for the human rights campaign of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), said that Jakarta seems unwilling to scrape below the surface.

”The political will does not seem to be there. The investigations have been carried out by low-rank police and military personnel, and I do not think these (people) have the courage or will to really dig deeper and find out who ordered the murder,” Yudhawiranata said.

“The government has made many promises but, if it really wants to solve the murder, it must assign higher-rank officials to (run) the investigations,” he added.

Munir Said Thalib, usually referred to only as Munir, was Indonesia’s foremost human rights activist. He was the founder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and also of the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial).

His work, primarily aimed at exposing illegal activities committed by the government and the military, earned him the respect of many: he was named Man of the Year in 1998 by a leading Indonesian Muslim periodical UMMAT, and a young leader for the Millennium by Asiaweek in 2000. The same year he became a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award- known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ – for “his courage and dedication in fighting for human rights and civilian control of the military in Indonesia.”

But his exposes also earned him powerful enemies within Indonesia’s dark power circles. He received many death threats before he was killed, aged 38.

In Jakarta, many believe that members of the military, or the secret services, Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN), might have been involved in his death. This perception was reinforced by the findings of an independent fact-finding team (Tim Pencari Fakta), established by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in December 2004.

Garuda staff tried to pass off Munir’s death as a case of heart attack but the conspiracy began to unravel after Dutch authorities insisted on conducting an inquest and autopsy which turned up evidence of arsenic poisoning.

The President’s team ended its six-month mandate on Jun. 23, 2005 and produced a lengthy report with detailed findings and recommendations, which was presented to the police. As Human Right Watch (HRW) summarised it, the team identified Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto as a primary suspect in the case. Pollycarpus had been issued with a special “aviation security” assignment to travel on Flight 974, traveling on the first leg of the flight only, from Jakarta to Singapore.

According to Munir’s widow, Pollycarpus made several phone calls to their home to check on her husband’s flight plans. When the passengers boarded the aircraft in Jakarta, Pollycarpus allegedly offered Munir an upgrade to business class.

The team examined Pollycarpus’ mobile phone records and traced several numbers, one of which was a confidential line to the intelligence branch led by retired Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwoprajoyo, a deputy director of the State Intelligence Body.

Records reportedly showed that as many as 26 calls were made to Muchdi’s number, before and after Munir’s death, and that there had been multiple calls between Pollycarpus’ and Muchdi’s personal mobile numbers.

Muchdi, a former head of the Indonesian Army’s Special Forces, resigned from the State Intelligence Body in 2005. He declined two requests from the team to appear for questioning. He has denied making calls to Pollycarpus, alleging that his phone may have been used by someone else.

Pollycarpus was found guilty of premeditated conspiracy to murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison by a criminal court in Jakarta in December 2005. The judge noted that the pilot appeared to be part of a conspiracy and called for investigations.

Yet, no one else has been indicted for the murder. Although Pollycarpus’ verdict was upheld on first appeal last April, his premeditated ‘conspiracy to murder’ conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court with a two-to-one split verdict, on Oct. 3.

That means Pollycarpus is set to walk free in five months. He is currently serving a two-year sentence for falsifying assignment documents, which enabled him to board the Garuda airplane on which Munir was murdered.

Commenting on the apex court’s decision, Yudhawiranata said he expected it.

“The verdict is disappointing, yet it is not surprising. The judges were appointed under the old regime (of the former dictator Suharto) and this is their way of operating,” he said. “It is sad to note that upholding justice is still difficult in Indonesia,” he added.

In the meantime, HRW, followed by a string of other organisations, has called on Yudhoyono to establish an independent body to audit the police investigation and the attorney general’s response to Munir’s murder and establish why key recommendations and findings of the fact-finding team appear to have been ignored.

The organisations have also demanded that Indonesia’s state intelligence extend full cooperation to the police and any other independent investigation body. “The police and the attorney general’s office have steadfastly continued to ignore evidence and recommendations submitted to them by the Presidential Fact-Finding Team, which also implicated senior intelligence officers and airline officials in involvement in the murder,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “The truth needs to be uncovered, including who ordered and planned the killing, no matter where the trail leads,” he added. Gen. Sutanto, head of Indonesia’s national police, has promised that a new investigation will be launched. Yet, when asked whether the communication between Polycarpus and Muchdi will also become evidence in the new case, he answered that the conversation lacked substance as it was not recorded.