Munir probe team tries to open lid on BIN

Tiarma Siboro and Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government-sanctioned fact-finding team probing the murder of noted human rights campaigner Munir signed a protocol on Monday with the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) in a bid to enable investigations into BIN agents who stand accused of involvement in the matter.

Team member Usman Hamid, however, declined to disclose the protocol's contents, but said it would significantly assist his team in summoning BIN officers for questioning.

"It is hoped that the protocol will bring down the barriers," he said at the team's secretariat office on Jl. Latuharhari in Central Jakarta.

The team has repeatedly complained about a lack of cooperation on the part of BIN into the investigation of last year's assassination of Munir.

On Monday, the team was scheduled to interrogate former BIN secretary Nurhadi Jazuli, who was recently appointed as the new Indonesian ambassador to Nigeria.

However, he failed to attend the session for reasons that were unclear, Usman said.

"We planned to question Nurhadi today but he called us and postponed the meeting, and changed the venue from our office to BIN headquarters," said team chief Marsudi Hanafi, a police brigadier general.

"He's not being cooperative," he added.

The signing of the protocol came after BIN chief Syamsir Siregar assigned three BIN deputies to specifically assist the fact-finding team.

Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had ordered all relevant agencies to cooperate with the team and the National Police in order to find Munir's killers.

Munir was found dead aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004. An autopsy by Dutch authorities found an excessive amount of arsenic in his body.

Three Garuda crew members -- pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto and flight attendants Oedi Iriyanto and Yeti Susmiyarti -- have been named by the police as suspects in the case.

Police investigators on Monday questioned four other Garuda employees.

The four -- Garuda pilot in command of the GA-974 flight, Capt. Sabur Taufik, chief steward Brahmani Astawati, Eva Yulianti and Tri Wiryasmadi, both crew members working in economy class, arrived at National Police headquarter at 10 a.m., accompanied by their lawyer Wirawan Adnan.

"These crew members were summoned as witnesses because they probably knew what was happening on the flight at that time," Wirawan said.

He said that Brahmani and Eva may have information on what Munir and Pollycarpus were doing while they were aboard the plane, adding that Brahmani was the one who gave permission for Pollycarpus to exchange seats with Munir during the first leg of the flight from Jakarta to Singapore.

Pollycarpus, an alleged BIN agent, was charged with "facilitating" the murder of Munir, as he called up Munir beforehand to check if the rights activist would be on the flight, and offered him his seat in business class.

Earlier, Garuda vice president of corporate security Ramelgia Anwar denied he ever issued Pollycarpus an assignment letter to fly to Singapore on Sept. 6, claiming it was the his own decision to take the GA-974 flight at that time.

In response, Pollycarpus' lawyer Suhardi Somomoeljono said his client was merely doing his duty to his superiors and he was wondering why he was being singled out.

"He (Pollycarpus) feels like he has been abandoned to take all the blame. No Garuda officials pay any attention to him now, and they have not even supplied him with a lawyer, even though he is still a Garuda employee," Suhardi said.