Garuda delays Munir probe
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.