Congressmen urge Susilo to solve Munir case
Congressmen urge Susilo to solve Munir case
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
About 70 American congressmen urged President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono to make "a clear legal move" to resolve the murder of
noted rights campaigner Munir, who died in September last year of
arsenic poisoning.
The congressmen also asked the Indonesian President to publish
the report of by the now-defunct independent fact-finding team
that has indicated the involvement of several high-ranking
officials from the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) in the murder,
which took place aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight traveling from
Jakarta to the Netherlands via Singapore.
The Congressmen's letter was sent to Munir's widow
Suciwati.
"I received the letter from the American congressmen on Oct.
27. It (the letter) is among many letters that I have received
from my international friends. In the letter, the congressmen
expressed their support for my fight for justice over the murder
of my husband," Munir's wife Suciwati said on Wednesday.
The fact-finding team submitted its report to the
President before its mandate ended in August. The report
mentioned the alleged role of some high-ranking BIN officials in
the poisoning of Munir.
The report, however, did not definitively state that BIN was
involved as an institution, nor did it state how deeply BIN
individuals were involved. In addition, it did not identify a
clear motive behind the murder, mainly because of the agency's
reluctance to give the team complete access to relevant documents
and its armory.
The team urged the President to order the police to launch a
full investigation of the BIN officers' alleged involvement.
In its report, the team also criticized the police for its
poor performance in handling the case, prompting the team to ask
the President to establish a supervisory committee to ensure the
police seriously investigated the murder.
Former deputy chairman of the fact-finding team Asmara
Nababan, however, said the President had been reluctant to act on
the team's recommendations because of "political bargaining with
certain parties."
"I guess the President is powerless against the power of the
suspected murderers, and that is why he (the President) seemed to
drop our recommendations," said Asmara, a former secretary-
general of the National Commission on Human Rights.
"I also think that the President is worried about the
political impact if he pursues the mastermind behind the murder,"
he said.
So far, only Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto -- who
is also believed to be a BIN agent, has been put on trial.