After one year unanswered: Who poisoned Munir?<\/p>\n
Harry Bhaskara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
One of life's ironies is the incongruity between what a man
\nworks for and what he gets. Munir fought for justice throughout
\nhis life, yet, almost a year after his death, his killers have
\nnot been found.<\/p>\n
As the news spotlight turns to Aceh with its renewed hope for
\npeace after three decades of violence, one great friend of the
\nAcehnese has long gone. Munir Thalib Said, who was poisoned
\naboard an airplane on his way to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004, had
\nbeen a source of strength for many victims of human rights abuses
\nduring their times of difficulty.<\/p>\n
\"I am very sad. Nobody like Munir will fight for the fate of
\nthe Acehnese anymore,\" an Acehnese villager told The Jakarta Post
\ntwo days after Munir's death.<\/p>\n
Netherlands authorities found over 460 milligrams of arsenic
\nor more than twice the lethal dose in his body.<\/p>\n
\"Even though he was Javanese, his fight for justice in Aceh
\nfar surpassed the efforts of most Achenese,\" said Syarifah
\nNurhayati.<\/p>\n
It is commonly known that the Acehnese have a grudge against
\nthe Javanese whom they believe siphoned off the wealth of the
\nresource-rich province.<\/p>\n
A landmark peace deal was signed in Helsinki on Aug. 15
\nbetween representatives of the Indonesian government and members
\nof the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Even if peace materializes in
\nAceh, Munir will remain in the hearts of many Acehnese.<\/p>\n
Munir, who died at the young age of 38, was the foremost, and
\nmost outspoken human rights campaigner of Aceh and many other hot
\nspots in the country as well.<\/p>\n
At the time of his death, people never imagined that one year
\nlater, barely any light would be shed on the case.<\/p>\n
The murder has added to the list of unresolved cases of human
\nrights abuses in the country, including the 1984 Tanjung Priok
\nincident in Jakarta, the 1993 murder of labor activist Marsinah,
\nthe May 1998 riots in Jakarta, the Trisakti and the Semanggi
\nstudent shootings in Jakarta in 1998 and 1999, and the mysterious
\ndeath in 2001 of former chief justice Baharuddin Lopa as he
\ndisembarked from a plane in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
Munir not only fought against impunity for human rights abuses
\nin Aceh, but also in East Timor -- until it seceded from
\nIndonesia in 1999 -- and Papua in the easternmost part of the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
His work embraced virtually the full spectrum of human rights
\nconcerns in Indonesia, from abuses by the military and police to
\nattacks on labor activists. During the final months of Soeharto's
\nreign in 1998 he took up the cause of 24 activists who had
\ndisappeared in suspicious circumstances. Eleven of them were
\nlater released, the rest have not been accounted for until this
\nday.<\/p>\n
Munir was also active in seeking a solution to the sectarian
\nconflicts in Maluku. In 1999 he became a key member of the
\nCommission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations (KPP-HAM)
\nwhose initial findings made it possible for Indonesia to defer
\ninternational pressure to face the international tribunal for its
\nhuman rights abuses in East Timor.<\/p>\n
Weeks before he left for the Netherlands, he confided to a
\nfriend that he had been exhausted by the endless demands on his
\nenergy that came with endless rights violations and that he was
\nlooking forward to a rest in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
With a scholarship under his belt, Munir had wanted to
\ncontinue his human rights studies at Utrecht University. On that
\nfateful day Munir boarded a Garuda Indonesia airplane bound for
\nAmsterdam from Jakarta with a stopover in Singapore.<\/p>\n
He fell sick three hours after the plane left Singapore and
\nvomited violently. He was then asked to move to a seat besides a
\nmedical doctor. Munir died in agony in his final moments two
\nhours before he landed in Amsterdam. Munir is survived by his
\nwife Suciwati and his two school-age children.<\/p>\n
This month, a Jakarta district court is trying a Garuda pilot
\ncharged with the murder but the pilot's lawyer says he believes
\nPollycarpus Budihari Priyanto did not work alone. A government-
\nsanctioned fact finding team found that Pollycarpus had made
\nseveral phone calls to officials from the state intelligence
\nagency (BIN) prior to the murder. The team submitted its final
\nreport to the government in June but it has not been made public.<\/p>\n
His family terrorized<\/p>\n
Two days after Munir's death, his family in Malang received a
\ndisturbing letter \"congratulating\" them for Munir's death,
\nbranding him a traitor and hoping that the spirits of national
\nheroes would pardon him.<\/p>\n
It is a sad episode when a defender of violence becomes a
\nvictim of violence but sadder still is to learn that instead of
\nfinding justice, the surviving members of his family have been
\nthreatened.<\/p>\n
Two months later, Suciwati received a package of mutilated
\nchicken carcasses with a note saying: \"Don't link Munir's death
\nwith the TNI. Want to end up like this?\" TNI is the acronym for
\nthe Indonesian Military. The military has denied sending the
\npackage.<\/p>\n
\"Who in Indonesia can feel safe? We can be hurt anywhere and
\nby any means without the state protecting us at all,\" she told
\nthe Post when asked whether or not she lived in fear following
\nthe threat on her life in November.<\/p>\n
Facing threats and intimidation is nothing new for Suciwati.
\nSince the beginning of her activities as a labor and women's
\nrights activist until the death of her husband, she has
\nconfronted violence and continues to do so.<\/p>\n
Her attempt to uphold justice brought her to all corners,
\nincluding a meeting with the President. It is heartbreaking to
\nlisten to her regular pleas on the radio for justice.<\/p>\n
Obstacles to the investigation have been apparent from the
\nstart. Dutch prosecutors said they did not have the jurisdiction
\nto investigate a crime committed aboard an Indonesian airplane.
\nAt times, the obstacles edged on absurdity, such as when a team
\nof police was sent to the Netherlands after the murder but none
\nof the team members could speak Dutch or English.<\/p>\n
The team was sent to obtain the original copy of Munir's
\nautopsy results, which is a requirement under Indonesian law for
\nany investigation. When the results were finally obtained, the
\npolice announced that they wanted to perform another autopsy on
\nMunir. This did not materialize but Suciwati only received the
\nautopsy report two months later.<\/p>\n
In November, the House of Representatives appeared reluctant
\nto lend its support to a thorough probe of the murder of Munir.
\nWhen it was at last ready to support it, the President issued
\ndecree no. 11 in December for the establishment of a government-
\nsanctioned fact-finding team. But the decree did not include a
\nmandate to force anyone implicated in wrongdoings to appear for
\nquestioning.<\/p>\n
The most substantial revelation came in June 2005 when the
\nfact-finding team announced that it had found documents setting
\nout methods and plans to kill Munir.<\/p>\n
The first method was to kill Munir while in a car, presumably
\nthrough a road accident. The second method was through black
\nmagic by employing the services of a witch doctor or dukun. The
\nthird plan was to poison Munir in his office through his food.
\nAll three plans failed.<\/p>\n
\"Let the public conclude for themselves who should be held
\nresponsible for the murder of Munir because law enforcers appear
\nunable to bring untouchables from a feared intelligence agency to
\njustice,\" a member of the team, Asmara Nababan, told the Post in
\nJuly.<\/p>\n
The team said it had been denied access to BIN despite a
\npresidential order to the agency and the National Police to
\ncooperate with them.<\/p>\n
Pollycarpus was the initial and main suspect in the case and
\nofficials from Garuda Indonesia or BIN appeared to be
\ninaccessible. The team's summonses to BIN officials were ignored.<\/p>\n
Instead of answering the summonses, former BIN chief A.M.
\nHendropriyono, who headed BIN at the time of Munir's murder,
\ninvited the team members to his office. The members turned down
\nthe invitation.<\/p>\n
In May 2005, the four-star Army general reported two of the
\nteam members to the police for alleged defamation.<\/p>\n
The police did succeed in questioning Hendropriyono on June 11
\nbut there was no official announcement made about the
\nquestioning. Only three suspects were named by the police,
\nPollycarpus and two Garuda flight attendants.<\/p>\n
\"I never ordered the murder. If it is the work of the
\ninstitution, I should know. (But) if it is the work of
\nindividuals at BIN, then let the legal process proceed,\"
\nHendropriyono told the Post in June.<\/p>\n
Munir Courage Award<\/p>\n
Munir was not only known in Indonesia. His bravery and
\npersistency gained him international recognition in his short
\nlife time.<\/p>\n
This year, a new award will be established in honor of Munir's
\nwork. Called the Munir Courage Award it is offered to a human
\nrights activists who is exemplary in fighting against government
\nabuses of human rights. The award will be presented in December.<\/p>\n
Suciwati said, the end of the struggle in defending human
\nrights was not when an award was presented, but when freedom from
\nabuse and violations was finally achieved.<\/p>\n
\"Some people may not see the purpose of what we're fighting
\nfor now, but I truly believe that they will see it one day. This
\nis all for our children, who will live in a civilization where
\nhuman rights are respected,\" she said during the promulgation of
\nthe award in December.<\/p>\n
Munir's murder came only a month before Army General Susilo
\nBambang Yudhoyono was installed as the sixth Indonesian President
\nand the first to be directly elected. Although authoritarianism
\ngave way to democracy in 1998, the habit of stifling critics
\nseems to have stayed.<\/p>\n
The mystery surrounding Munir's death is not a good omen for
\nthe new government, which has vowed to uphold the rule of law.<\/p>\n
Part of the stumbling block may lie in culture. Both the
\npolice and even the President appear reluctant to face the kind
\nof resistance posed by their seniors at BIN, although unveiling
\nthe mystery will work in favor of the credibility of Susilo's
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
Munir closely personified those freedom fighters who preceded
\nhim by 60 years. They fought with equal bravery and honesty. The
\nfreedom fighters certainly did not envisage a time when one of
\nthe nation's finest sons would be murdered aboard a flight of the
\ncountry's national flag carrier. What they and Munir fought for
\nwas to bring this nation closer to the civilized world.<\/p>\n
As Suciwati once told the Post: \"Human rights is not something
\nfrom the West, it is attached to every individual. I can't
\nexpress much about these things but surely a nation that wants to
\nprogress should be one that respects the rights of its citizens.\"<\/p>\n
Who is Munir?<\/p>\n
1989 Worked with the Legal Aid Institute in Surabaya
\n1996 Moved to the Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta
\n1998 Co-founded the Commission for Missing Persons and<\/p>\n
Victims of Violence (Kontras)
\n1999 Member of the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights<\/p>\n
Violations in East Timor (KPP-HAM) set up by the<\/p>\n
National Human Rights Commission
\n2002 Co-founded human rights group Imparsial<\/p>\n
Awards won by Munir<\/p>\n
1998 The Yap Thiam Hien human-rights prize.
\n1998 Man of the Year by the leading Indonesian Muslim periodical<\/p>\n
Ummat.
\n2000 Named one of \"20 young Asian leaders for the new<\/p>\n
millennium\" by Asia Week
\n2000 The Right Livelihood Award<\/p>",
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