Rights campaigner Munir dies

Rights campaigner Munir dies

Born in the Central Java town of Malang on Dec. 8, 1965,
Munir's small, aggressive demeanor rose to prominence in the late
1990s amid a rash of kidnappings and disappearances during the
last years of former president Soeharto's rule. His co-founding
of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras), not long before the May riots, on April 21 1998,
challenged the dismissing of acts such as kidnapping, torture and
involuntary disappearances as ordinary crimes.

People began to talk of "state violence" as Kontras provided
legal counsel for victims, investigated individual cases and made
public the results of its investigations, which often implicated
the security forces. Not long after Kontras was established,
Munir and his colleagues received a number of threats, including
a bomb threat targeted at his family home in Malang, East Java.

Munir almost immediately was recognized internationally for
his work, and was honored with awards such as the Yap Thiam Hien
Human Rights Award and the Right Livelihood Award 2000, or the
"alternative Nobel", from the Swedish government.

He was involved in various high profile investigations,
including the violence in East Timor both before and after the
1999 referendum. He reflected later that the national rights
body, which set up a team on East Timor, was much more effective
than when it investigated the Tanjung Priok case of 1984, even
though the national rights body was backed by legislation.

The father of two and husband of Suciati, a former labor
activist, also became a hero to the Acehnese as his presence in
the war-torn province emboldened a populace used to fear. But as
communal violence spread in Indonesia, Kontras was overwhelmed,
and he was criticized for neglecting thousands of victims such
those in Maluku.

In 2002, Munir cofounded Indonesian Human Rights Watch
(Imparsial).

Of the truth and reconciliation commission, the bill for which
was finally endorsed on Tuesday, he once said that the prolonged
plan to set up the commission was nothing more than "an excuse
for impunity." --JP