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Activists seek justice for death of Dutch journo

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2009

Jakarta – Activists in London demanded Monday that Indonesian authorities bring to justice those responsible for killing Dutch Financial Times correspondent Sander Thoenes in then East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia after a 1999 referendum.

A press release sent to The Jakarta Post by the International Press Institute (IPI) said Thoenes went to East Timor (now Timor Leste) in September 1999 to report on the aftermath of the referendum vote for independence from Indonesia and the landing of Indonesian troops on the island. UN and Indonesian investigators found that he was shot at point-blank range by Indonesian troops after falling off his motorcycle.

"Both UN and Indonesian investigations into the murder of Sander Thoenes have identified members of the Indonesian military as being responsible for the crime. The fact that these individuals have not been prosecuted shows a disturbing lack of will by Indonesia to end the impunity connected with the killing of Sander Thoenes and other journalists," said IPI press freedom manager Anthony Mills, who attended a commemoration event for Thoenes at the Frontline Club in London.

Sander's brother, Peter, read out a protest at the event, saying: "The Indonesian government has consistently delayed, obstructed and ridiculed any prosecutions of these criminals on their payroll. In doing so, that government has made it clear to the international community that it happily condones all kind of atrocities committed by its military up to this day."

Thoenes, who was 30 years old at the time of his death, had been working as the Financial Times Indonesia correspondent since September 1997, after the Asian financial crisis had started to spread in the region.

On the day Thoenes was murdered, the Financial Times had published an article by him titled "Military's power undimmed by humiliations," in which Thoenes analyzed the Indonesian military's grip on power in spite of the humiliation of having been ousted from East Timor and political reforms that challenged their role in politics.