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.