Munawir Sjadzali dies at 78

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former minister of religious affairs and chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Munawir Sjadzali, 78, died on Friday at Pondok Indah Hospital, after six weeks of treatment for a stroke.

Munawir died at 11:20 a.m., his family said in statement.

"He died peacefully, surrounded by his entire family," one of his sons, Mustain, told Antara.

He is to be interred on Saturday at Giri Tama Tonjong public cemetery in Parung, Bogor.

Born in the Central Java town of Klaten on Nov. 7, 1925, Munawir served two terms as religious minister between 1983 and 1993 under Soeharto.

Soeharto also appointed him a member of the Supreme Advisory Council for the 1993-1998 period and chairman of Komnas HAM in 1996, replacing the late Ali Said.

Prior to his ministerial appointment, Munawir was a career diplomat who had been posted in Washington, Sri Lanka and London as a senior diplomat and as ambassador to the Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Munawir was also known as a scholar on Islam and was a post- graduate lecturer at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN), which awarded him with an honorary doctorate in 1994. He had traveled abroad in his academic capacity, and was a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Canada, and at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

He published several books on Islam, including Can Indonesia Adopt Islam as a Foundation and Islam and State Administration.

He was bestowed several medals for his contributions from the Indonesian as well as foreign governments, including the Great Gordon Merit from Qatar, Medallion of the Order of Kuwait and the Order of the Yugoslav Flag with Golden Wreath.

Munawir is survived by his wife and six children.