Police hit snag in probing Munir's death

Police hit snag in probing Munir's death

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police are facing difficulties in the
investigation of the death of top human rights activist Munir,
particularly due to resistance from the Netherlands government to
allow the Indonesian police to investigate in that country.

Director of Transnational Security Brig. Gen. Pranowo Dahlan
told reporters on Monday that the Netherlands wanted a mutual
legal assistance agreement signed between the two countries
before Indonesian investigators could do any investigative work
there.

"With such an agreement, our investigation there could be
declared legal and valid," Pranowo said on the sidelines of a
hearing between the National Police and House of Representatives
Commission III on human rights and security.

Munir, who often criticized the human rights record of local
security personnel, died of arsenic poisoning on board a Garuda
flight to Amsterdam from Jakarta on Sept. 7, 2004.

Due to the absence of an agreement, the police have not been
able to collect the remains of Munir or documents related to the
case. An autopsy was conducted on Munir's body by Dutch doctors
in the Netherlands.

Pranowo said the police were focusing the investigation on
three people who were on the same flight as Munir. They are an
off-duty Garuda pilot named Policarpus, Indonesian passenger
Emilie Lie Swan Gie and an Indonesia-born Dutch Citizen
identified as Lie. None of the three has been named a suspect.

Both Emilie and Lie sat near Munir on the flight, while
Policarpus moved Munir from economy class to business class on
the plane.

According to the police report, Emilie Lie Swan has agreed to
be questioned, but the police have yet to question Lie, a Dutch
citizen, due to the absence of a mutual legal assistance
agreement between the two countries.

Therefore, in order to solve the case, Pranowo said an
agreement was urgently needed.

"We plan to send investigators to the Netherlands but we're
waiting for the go ahead from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,"
Pranowo said.

Elsewhere, Pranowo said the police wanted to reconstruct
Munir's death this week, but had to wait for Garuda to provide a
plane on which to do the work. Most Garuda airplanes are
currently being used to transport haj pilgrims.

"This will be only a preliminary reconstruction since we have
no suspects yet. We hope we can do it this week," Pranowo said.

Reconstruction of Munir's death will start from the moment he
entered Soekarno-Hatta International Airport until his transit in
Singapore's Changi International Airport. Ii is believed that
Munir ingested arsenic on the short trip to Singapore.