Dutch parliament to hold debate on Munir

Dutch parliament to hold debate on Munir

Agence France-Presse, The Hague

The Dutch parliament will have an emergency debate Tuesday on the
death of Indonesian human rights activist Munir, who died in
September after he was poisoned on a plane en route from Jakarta
to Amsterdam, the environmental Groenlinks (Greenleft) party said
on Thursday.

Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Foreign Minister
Bernard Bot will take part in the debate.

"There will be an emergency debate next Tuesday. We want the
Dutch government also on behalf of the European Union to demand
an independent investigation" into Munir's death from Indonesia,
Farah Karimi a lawmaker for the Groenlinks party told AFP.

She explained that the Green party and the Socialist Party
also wanted the autopsy report on Munir, done by Dutch doctors,
to be given directly to Munir's family.

"Mister Munir was a human rights activist and such people
should get international protection," said Karimi.

Indonesian police officers are currently in the Netherlands to
investigate Munir's death and Jakarta has asked the Dutch
ministry of justice to help with the case.

Munir, 38, was a dynamic activist who began work in the 1990s,
providing legal counsel for victims of officially-sanctioned
violence and repression during Soeharto's three-decade rule that
ended in 1998.

He was also one of the driving forces behind an investigation
that exposed military involvement in human rights violations
during East Timor's 1999 independence vote.

According to the Dutch autopsy report he died of arsenic
poisoning.