Susilo aims to speed up probe into Munir case
Eva C. Komandjadja and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to speed up the investigation into the murder of top human rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib amid strong criticism at home and abroad.
State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said that to accelerate the probe, the President himself would hold a regular meeting with the fact-finding team tasked to help investigate the case, the National Police, and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN).
"The President will directly lead (the meeting) to ensure that each related institution functions," Sudi said after a meeting between the fact-finding team and Susilo.
According to Sudi, Susilo also thinks that the probe has not provided satisfactory results since it was set up in December last year.
The President has received strong criticism from activists at home and abroad because there has been no significant progress in the ongoing investigation into Munir's murder, which has been running for six months.
Suciwati, Munir's wife, earlier complained about the sluggishness of the National Police in the investigation of the murder case despite help given by the fact-finding team.
Meanwhile, New York-based advocacy group Human Rights First urged the government of Indonesia to live up to its pledges, AFP reported.
"President Yudhoyono has stated that the Munir investigation is a test case of how much Indonesia has changed," the group said in a statement.
Munir, a rights campaigner who had often criticized the authorities and military for human rights abuses in various parts of the country, was poisoned in September last year on board a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam as shown by an autopsy report that revealed excessive level of arsenic in his body.
Three Garuda officials had been declared suspects in the case to date. One is a Garuda pilot named Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who was on the same flight as Munir and offered his business class seat to Munir during the Jakarta-Singapore trip. There have been rumors that Pollycarpus was a BIN agent.
The fact-finding team and the police are now under pressure to unveil the mastermind behind the murder case.
But the fact-finding team has often faced difficulties in seeking information from key people who have been reluctant to cooperate with the team. Brig. Gen. Marsudhi Hanafi, the head of the team, admitted this situation.
The former secretary of BIN Nurhadi Djazuli, for instance, had earlier refused to meet the team as he claimed it had no authority to question him.
Nurhadi, who was recently appointed as Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, finally met the team on Tuesday following widespread criticism including from lawmakers.
He came to the National Police headquarters for questioning as a witness on Wednesday.
Asked about the reluctance of state institutions to help the fact-finding team despite the President's directive, Sudi responded, "There are no such difficulties. It's only a matter of coordination."
Elsewhere, the President summoned on Wednesday Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin and Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh to seek ways to speed up the investigation into the murder case.
Strangely, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and BIN head Maj. Gen. Syamsir Siregar, whose institutions are directly involved directly in the probe were not present in the meeting.