BIN plays for time, slows probe into Munir's murder
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government-sanctioned fact-finding team (TPF) tasked with assisting police in probing the murder of human rights campaigner Munir is complaining that the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) remains uncooperative in the inquiry.
It said that despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's repeated order for BIN to give a full access to the team, the agency still refused to provide it with documents on its former agents allegedly implicated in the killing.
Rachland Nashidik, a TPF member and also director of human rights watchdog Imparsial, said BIN secretary general Suparto said his institution would not allow outsiders to see any of its documents, even in the interests of the investigation.
This shows that BIN are defying the President's order, he added.
At a meeting between Susilo and BIN chief Maj. Gen. (ret.) Syamsir Siregar earlier this week, the President reiterated his order to the intelligence agency.
"It remains unclear whether BIN as an institution was involved in Munir's death, or whether certain BIN officials abused their power, or perhaps, they are trying to halt the investigation into the case," Rachland told reporters on Friday.
The TPF has accused several BIN agents of involvement in the poisoning death of Munir aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004. An autopsy by Dutch authorities found excessive amounts of arsenic in his body.
National Police have detained Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto as a suspect in the murder case. There are suspicions that he is a BIN operative.
Pollycarpus reportedly persuaded Munir to change seats and move into business class on the Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore.
"We need BIN's documents that show whether Pollycarpus was recruited by BIN in 2002 as he has repeatedly claimed. We also need to clarify whether his recruitment was in line with BIN's antiterrorism policy," Rachland said.
Former BIN secretary general Nurhadi Djazuli has testified to the TPF that the recruitment of Pollycarpus was endorsed by former BIN chief A.M. Hendropriyono.
Pollycarpus has meanwhile named two other former high-ranking members of BIN, who were suspected of knowing about the crime. They are former BIN deputy chief overseeing the antiterrorism desk, Maj. Gen. (ret) Muchdi PR, and another former BIN agent Col. (ret) Bambang Irawan.
A source has said Bambang was the passenger who was seated in the same flight's business class and was believed to "have given a glass of drink mixed with poison to Munir".
A report obtained from state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom shows that Pollycarpus "received direct calls from Muchdi's extension number at his BIN office" before and after the death of Munir.
"Questioning of the three men concerned and checking all related BIN documents are necessary to clarify all of Pollycarpus' statements," Rachland said.
"We have prepared summonses for the three and are expecting to question them by mid-June. But I'm worried that they are just trying to buy time," he said, pointing out that the TPF will end its six-month term on June 23.