New schedule set for questioning BIN officials

New schedule set for questioning BIN officials

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The team set up to assist with the police investigation of rights
campaigner Munir's death remains hopeful of being able to
question former and active high-ranking officials of the National
Intelligence Agency (BIN) next week, before its mandate expires.

A new schedule was agreed upon in a meeting on Thursday
between members of the government-sanctioned fact-finding team
and a BIN official at the team's office on Jl. Latuharhary,
Central Jakarta.

The team will summon and question former BIN chief Gen. (ret)
A.M. Hendropriyono, former BIN deputy Maj. Gen. (ret) Muchdi PR,
and active BIN senior agent Col. (ret) Bambang Irawan as part of
a probe into the alleged role of BIN in the murder of Munir last
year.

Team member Usman Hamid said the team was expecting to
question Bambang next Monday, while Muchdi and Hendropriyono
would be questioned next Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

Next week's questioning will be the third summons for Muchdi
and Hendropriyono after the two, as well as several other former
and current BIN officials, failed to respond to the team's
summons despite a protocol agreement signed by the team and the
current BIN chief, Syamsir Siregar, which should allow the team
to summon officials and access documents in connection with the
death of Munir.

"For the sake of the investigation's progress, we (the team)
will follow all the rules for the convenience of these
intelligence officers. If they want a certain location to be the
place for the questioning, then we'll go there. If they are
willing to come to our office, then we'll wait for them here, or
if they pick other suitable places, OK, we'll get there," Usman
told The Jakarta Post after the meeting.

The team had initially planned to question Hendropriyono on
Thursday but the retired intelligence officer failed for the
second time to show up at the team's office. Hendropriyono's
lawyer Maj. Gen. (ret) Sjamsu Djalal earlier said his client was
tied up with out-of-town business.

The team was also unable to question Muchdi on Wednesday as
the retired two-star general had been assigned to carry out a
certain task in West Irian Jaya province. A BIN official said
that Muchdi's out-of-town business would be completed on Sunday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up the fact-finding
team on Dec. 23 to help the police investigate the death of
Munir, who died aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam.
Dutch authorities performed an autopsy on Munir and found
excessive levels of arsenic in his body, suggesting that he was
murdered.

The President extended in March the working term of the team
for another three months, giving the team another chance to
collect more information and interview other parties, including
BIN officials.

The fact-finding team's mandate will end on June 23.

Usman said that if the BIN officials continued to reject the
team's summons, "then we will ask the President to force them to
cooperate with us or set up another team authorized with more
power."

It is not clear whether the President will allow the team more
time, but some analysts have suggested that even if its mandate
is not extended, the team should have garnered sufficient
information for the police to quickly wrap up the case.

Usman further criticized the bureaucracy for not disbursing
the promised Rp 1 billion (US$1 million) budget to support the
team in carrying out its duties.

"I'm not saying that we can't do anything without money, but
it indeed shows the poor performance of our bureaucracy," he
said.