Dutch parliament supports investigation of Munir case

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Dutch parliament on Thursday pledged to push its government to closely observe the ongoing investigation of the murder of prominent Indonesian human rights activist Munir.

Two members of the Indonesian Human Rights Working Group, Rafendy and Choirul Anam, along with Munir's wife, Suciwati, met with members of the Dutch parliament recently to discuss the progress of the Munir fact-finding team's work.

"They (members of parliament) have expressed their support for the team by pressing the Dutch government to monitor every step taken by the Indonesian authorities to bring those responsible for the murder to justice," Rafendy Jamin, the coordinator of the Human Rights Working Group told The Jakarta Post by telephone from the Netherlands.

Rafendy also said that the commission was willing to establish regular contacts with the team and to attend the trial of Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the sole suspect in the murder case.

Munir was poisoned to death on board a Garuda plane during a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September last year.

The coalition also held hearings with the Netherlands Forensic Institute and the Indonesian Embassy on the same day.

"The Institute has expressed its willingness to be called in to testify to avoid any misinterpretation on their forensic report," Raffendy said.

Munir's body was examined by experts from the institute, soon after his body arrived at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam. The forensic team found 465 milligrams of arsenic in his body. However, certain body organs belonging to Munir have not been handed over to the authorities in Indonesia because of the lack of proper storage equipment in this country.

Separately, a member of the fact finding team, Usman Hamid, who is also a coordinator of the Indonesian Committee for Missing Persons, Kontras, said that the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) had, for a second time, canceled a scheduled meeting with the team. There have been indications that certain BIN officials were involved in the murder case.

Usman also said that the team would urge police investigators to conduct a reenactment now that they had a suspect.

"We've talked to the new Garuda president director, Emirsyah Satar, and he said that he would arrange for us to do the reenactment if the police investigators could give them an exact schedule," Usman said.

However, he added that no formal letter had been sent to the police investigators about the plan.

He also said that the team would be given access to the reports drawn up by the Dutch police after their initial investigation of the poisoning aboard the Garuda plane that landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday handed over the documents after they were transferred from the Indonesian Embassy in the Netherlands last week.

"The document is now being translated so we can only wait until that process is over. Then we can read and study it," Usman said.(006)