Kontras interviews Garuda employee on Munir's death
Kontras interviews Garuda employee on Munir's death
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Activists are interviewing an employee of national flag carrier
Garuda Indonesia to find clues about Munir's mysterious death
aboard a GA 974 flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam in September.
They also suspect that Munir, who was found dead two hours
before his plane was due to land in Amsterdam on Sept. 7, may
have been poisoned on the flight from Jakarta to Singapore on
Sept. 6.
Edwin Partogi, operational division chairman of the Commission
for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said here
on Thursday that he and several fellow activists had interviewed
a Garuda Indonesia employee, who called Munir's house in Bekasi,
West Jakarta three days before his death.
According to Edwin, the employee introduced himself to Munir's
wife Suciwati, who took the call, as her husband's friend and
told her that he would take the same flight as Munir to the
Netherlands.
He said the employee, whose name was withheld, also greeted
and introduced himself to Munir and Suciwati when the couple,
along with several fellow activists, arrived at the Soekarno-
Hatta International Airport on Sept. 6.
The employee, according to Edwin, admitted that he spoke to
Munir on board the flight to Singapore.
The man, Edwin said, also admitted that he had successfully
persuaded Munir to transfer from economy class to business class
on the flight to Singapore, even though Munir initially declined.
The plane took off from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International
Airport at 9:55 p.m on Sept. 6, and arrived in Singapore at 12:40
a.m. and left Singapore's Changi International Airport at 1:50
a.m. for Amsterdam.
"We are not really sure, but we believe that Munir, as a
business class passenger, was given a meal during the one-and-a-
half hour flight," Edwin said.
According to Edwin, during the stopover in Singapore the man
told Munir that he had decided to cancel his trip to Amsterdam.
According to Kontras' investigation, some three hours into the
flight from Singapore to Amsterdam, a flight steward named Najib
reported to the pilot in command that a passenger in seat number
40G was sick.
The pilot, Capt. Pantun Matondang, ordered Najib to ask for
assistance from another passenger, a doctor in seat number 1J and
to monitor Munir's condition.
After being attended to by the doctor, Munir was moved to a
seat near the doctor. Munir appeared comfortable and was able to
rest.
Some two hours before the plane landed at Schipol Airport in
Amsterdam, Najib and the doctor discovered Munir had died.
The Netherlands' Forensic Institute discovered high levels of
arsenic in Munir's body. Police investigators here said earlier
that Munir died of poisoning and have sent a team of
investigators to Amsterdam.
"The doctor, Tarmizi Hakim, had introduced himself to Munir
during the stopover at Changi Airport. He told Munir that he was
going to Amsterdam to attend a seminar," Edwin said.