Almost five months after the murder of acclaimed human rights campaigner Munir, police are yet to come up with a single suspect, increasing concerns of a high-level cover-up.
The dire lack of progress has also provoked scathing criticism of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who in November had pledged to do everything in his power to uncover the mystery behind the activist's death. He had even personally promised Munir's widow Suciwati that he would fully support the formation of an independent team to investigate the case.
But Yudhoyono broke his promise, permitting only the formation of a fact-finding team – chaired by Police Brigadier General Marsudi Hanafi – to "assist" police with their investigation. The 13-member team was formed on December 22 and given only three months in which to complete its inquiries.
Although the team contains several human rights activists, its members also include representatives of the police, the government and the Attorney General's Office. Hardly the stuff of independence.
Munir, founder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial), died of arsenic poisoning while on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7.
Rights groups are certain he was murdered by his powerful enemies, possibly by those who wanted to silence his most recent investigations into corruption cases involving prominent government figures. Police have questioned scores of witnesses but are adamant they still don't have any suspects.
Garuda pilot
Rights activists grouped in the Committee of Solidarity Action for Munir (Komite Aksi Solidaritas Untuk Munir – KASUM) on Wednesday (2/2/05) urged the fact-finding team to put pressure on police to investigate whether a Garuda pilot seen with Munir on the final day of his life was working covertly for a state intelligence agency.
The pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, allegedly telephoned Munir's house two or three days before the activist left for the Netherlands and told Suciwati he would be on the same flight as her husband. He has denied calling Munir's house and insisted he was not involved in his death.
But it has been established that Pollycarpus introduced himself to Munir and Suciwati when they arrived at Jakarta's Sukarno-Hatta International Airport on the night of September 6.
Munir was carrying an economy class ticket when he boarded Flight GA-974 from Jakarta to Amsterdam, but Pollycarpus persuaded him to take his business class seat. The pilot then took a seat in first class.
During the Singapore-Jakarta leg of the flight, Munir ordered and consumed noodles and orange juice, while Pollycarpus was seen pacing nervously between the bar in first class and the cockpit.
When the plane arrived at Singapore's Changi Airport at 11.40pm Jakarta time, Munir went to the waiting room, while Pollycarpus left the airport.
At 12.50am Munir re-boarded the aircraft and this time sat in his economy seat. Within a few hours he was in agonizing pain and suffering severe nausea and diarrhea. He died at least three hours before the plane landed in Amsterdam. Dutch authorities subsequently conducted an autopsy that revealed 465 milligrams of undigested arsenic in Munir's stomach – more than double the normally lethal dose of 200 milligrams.
The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) swiftly denied murdering Munir. On November 20, a decapitated and dismembered chicken was sent to Suciwati, along with a note warning: "Be careful!!!!! Do not connect TNI to the death of Munir. Do you want to end up like this?"
After police showed virtually no progress in their initial investigation. Munir's fellow human rights began their own investigation. They discovered that Pollycarpus had piloted flights – ostensibly for Christian missionaries – in Irian Jaya (now Papua) province over 1985-87 when the military was attacking separatist rebels in the territory.
Pollycarpus later flew planes to evacuate Indonesians from East Timor in 1999 after TNI and its militia proxies had unleashed carnage in there in response to the territory's vote to secede from Indonesia. East Timor's notorious former militia leader Eurico Guterres has admitted to knowing the pilot.
KASUM and the rights activists in the fact-finding team suspect Pollycarpus is no ordinary pilot. They have received anonymous tip-offs via mobile phone text messages alleging that he is a member of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and has an unlicensed gun from the agency. The pilot has strongly denied having links to any military intelligence institutions.
The activists have not publicly referred to Pollycarpus by name, but only by his initials PC. KASUM now wants police to ask BIN chief Sjamsir Siregar in writing whether PC is one of the agency's members. The group also wants to know whether BIN issued him a gun license.
Rafendi Djamin, coordinator of the Human Rights Working Group, concedes that rumors and anonymous text messages can't be considered material evidence. But he feels police could use the informal information as a basis for further investigation, especially given that the truth is not always clear in Indonesia.
He lamented that Indonesia has no mechanism for the protection of witnesses and a political system that cannot prevent violent action.
Djamin said it appeared the public and the media were more serious than the police were about unmasking Munir's killers. "After almost five months the case of Munir's murder is not clear yet. Furthermore, the police still haven't even found a suspect yet. Apparently the police are quite clumsy and unprofessional in solving this case," he was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.
"From this phenomenon it could be seen that the media and the public are more serious than the police in solving Munir's case," he added.
Djamin said the fact-finding team was facing various obstacles and it appeared the case had been manipulated for short-term political gains.
"Actually it's vital to have an open and transparent [investigation] process. What's more, this team is restricted by a time limit of only three months. But the condition that we really regret is that Munir's case has simply been made into a piece of political merchandise. This began to be felt when everyone criticized the first 100 days of the SBY-Kalla government," he said.
Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla had promised to make major achievements in their first 100 days in office, particularly by cracking down on corruption and crime. But the government has since failed to transform many of its lofty words into actions and had to scale back some of its promises.
It remains to be seen whether the retired general and tycoon will make it a priority to unmask Munir's killers.