Hendripriyono spars with Munir team

Hendripriyono spars with Munir team

JAKARTA: Human rights activists have urged the police to
detain former intelligence chief A.M. Hendropriyono for what they
called "attempts to avoid investigation" in connection with the
death of rights champion Munir last year.

"The police have sufficient reason to detain Hendropriyono
because he has tried to block the investigation," Johnson
Pandjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association said on Wednesday.

Activists from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims
of Violence protested statements made by Hendropriyono during an
interview aired by Metro TV channel on Tuesday night.

Hendropriyono criticized the government-sanctioned fact-
finding team looking into Munir's death for a "lack of
professionalism".

Hendropriyono has filed a police complaint against the team
for defamation.

The team wants to question Hendropriyono to seek his
clarification of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN)'s alleged
link to the Munir case. On Tuesday, the team summoned former BIN
secretary-general Nurhadi Djazuli and current BIN secretary-
general Suparto for questioning, but neither man appeared. --JP