Kontras urges SBY to speed up Munir probe

Kontras urges SBY to speed up Munir probe

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras) urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to make public
the report of a fact-finding team assigned to help the police in
investigating the murder of top rights campaigner Munir.

Kontras also urged the President to quickly take follow-up
action based on the results of the six-month investigation carried out
by the government-sanctioned team, whose assignment ended on June
23.

"These two measures are crucial to explaining to the general
public about what actually happened and why Munir was killed, and
to boost the efforts to get to the bottom of the murder," the
human rights watchdog said in a press statement on Thursday.

The demand came after the government decided at a Cabinet
meeting on Wednesday that it would not set up a special
commission as suggested by rights activists to ensure that the
case was thoroughly resolved.

Kontras expressed disappointment with the government's
decision not to set up the special commission, which it was hoped
would report directly to the President.

The National Police has set up a special team to investigate
the Munir case and act on the fact-finding team's report. Former
head of the fact-finding team, Brig. Gen. Marsudhi Hanafi, was
also appointed to head the police team.

But Kontras said that it would be difficult to rely solely on
the police to resolve the case, which it was believed involved
powerful and influential people.

"We believe that there is a lot of political obstacles to
solving the Munir case, so it needs the direct support of the
president," it said.

Kontras emphasized the need for the creation of a separate
commission, whose main tasks would be to oversee the conduct of
the investigation and to ensure that the legal process was
properly complied with from the investigation stage through to
the prosecution stage.

Kontras also said that based on Presidential Decree No.
111/2004 on the establishment of the fact-finding team, the
President should have announced the team's findings.

However, the President only made copies of the report
available to the military chief, police chief and State
Intelligence Agency (BIN) director.

In the report, the team described the murder of Munir as a
"conspiracy," involving former and serving senior officials of
BIN and national flag carrier Garuda.

Munir, the co-founder of Kontras and Imparsial, and a strong
critic of human rights violations by the military, died from
poisoning onboard a Garuda plane during a flight from Jakarta to
Amsterdam last September.

His body was examined by experts soon after his flight arrived
at Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. The autopsy showing that his body
contained 465 milligrams of arsenic.

So far, the police investigators have charged three suspects
in the case. A Garuda pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, has
been identified as the prime suspect and will be charged with
premeditated murder under Article 340 of the Criminal Code, as
well as document forgery.

The two other suspects, Yeti Susmiyarti and Oedi Irianto, were
flight attendants on the Garuda flight, but they have not been
detained.