Garuda delays Munir probe

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The investigation into the murder of top human rights campaigner Munir suffered another setback as national carrier Garuda Indonesia canceled a scheduled preliminary reconstruction of the case.

Head of the government-sanctioned fact finding team Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi told reporters on Wednesday that he was disappointed with the cancellation.

"Pak Pranowo (Director of Transnational Security Brig. Gen. Pranowo who is in charge of the investigation into the murder case) told me that Garuda Indonesian had canceled the reconstruction which was supposed to be held last night (Tuesday night) because several of its cabin crews were on duty," Marsudi said.

"This is impossible. Why were the cabin crew not ready since we told them (Garuda officials) about the reconstruction three weeks ago. There should have been enough time to replace the crew if they had been on duty at that time," Marsudi added.

He added that the fact-finding team would send a letter to Garuda to question the cancellation.

The investigating team from the police and the fact-finding team have agreed that a preliminary reconstruction of Munir's death would probably be able to give them some answers to questions surrounding the mysterious death of Munir, founder of human rights organizations Kontras and Imparsial, who had been a strong critic of past human rights violations particularly by military officers.

Munir died of arsenic poisoning on board a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004.

The preliminary reconstruction would be held on the ground at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta but it would use the same Garuda plane GA-974 and the same cabin crew who flew to Amsterdam on that fateful day.

Separately, Edwin Partogi of Kontras echoed Marsudi's view about the reconstruction cancellation.

Accompanied by Munir's wife Suciwati, Edwin said that he would ask the fact-finding team to force Garuda officials to carry out the preliminary reconstruction since Garuda seemed reluctant to do it and since the investigation had been moving at a snail's pace without any suspect having been named yet.

Apart from the reconstruction, Marsudi also revealed that a team from the police had arrived in the Netherlands to question Emilie Lie Swan Gie, an Indonesian passenger currently seeking medical treatment in the country, who sat near Munir on the Garuda flight.

"Tomorrow the team will leave for Frankfurt to question an Indonesian student who is currently studying at a university in Munich," Marsudi said.

The student, named Asiri, was also on the same flight with Munir and probably would have important information to share with the police.