This month marks the sixth anniversary of the alleged murder of one of Indonesia's most prominent human rights activists, Munir Said Thalib. The European Parliament has taken the opportunity to highlight the unresolved case by again inviting Munir's wife to meet its members. And Australia is being urged to raise the issue with Indonesia. Despite evidence that members of Indonesia's intelligence agency were behind the murder, none have been convicted. Presenter: Karon Snowdon

Speakers: Rusdi Marpuang, director, human rights monitoring group, Imparsial; Dr Clinton Fernandes, senior lecturer, Australian Defence Force Academy, and speaker at the inaugural Munir Thalib Memorial lecture, Sydney

Snowdon: Munir Thalib died from arsenic poisoning on a Garuda airline flight to Amsterdam in September 2004. The one person convicted of the murder was released two years into a 14 year jail sentence and the conviction was overturned by the supreme court.

Munir's wife, Suciwati, and supporters say senior members of Indonesia's intelligence agency ordered the killing in revenge for Munir's exposure of their human rights abuses during the Suharto regime. Rusdi Marpuang, a director of the human rights monitoring group, Imparsial, says the campaign will continue until the masterminds are brought to justice.

Rusdi: Suciwati tried to remind people, especially the international community to push this case over and over because the president said the Munir case is a test of our history.

Snowdon: Do you think president Yudhoyono maintains that position, that he's still committed to seeing justice done in this case?

Rusdi: I think it's very shameful for president Yudhoyono because until now there's been no action.

Snowdon: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered an independent investigation which in 2005 implicated the intelligence agency's former chief, retired general Hendropriyono, and a former deputy head, Muchdi Purwopranjono, in Munir's murder. Muchdi was tried and acquitted in 2008 in a trial that Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights called 'seriously flawed'.

In response, 450 members of the European Parliament signed a declaration calling on the Indonesian authorities to solve the case – but it was to no avail. Dr Clinton Fernandes, a senior lecturer in strategic studies at the Australian Defence Force Academy, says there should be ongoing international pressure for justice.

Fernandes: Justice has not been done. The Indonesian legal system is subject to very powerful distortion by generals. And I'd like to see those actually responsible brought to justice.

Snowdon: There's more lobbying in the European Union. That hasn't brought many results so far. Why continue to pursue that angle and what hope is there this time?

Fernandes: The struggle for justice for Munir's killers is a bit like the struggle to overturn the dictator Suharto. It took a long time, 32 years in that case. But the issue kept being placed on the agenda by people who would never go away and who kept talking about it. The same as the independence of East Timor. The same as the people who were the masterminds of the murder of Munir, it's a matter of never letting people forget who they are. And when the tide does turn diplomatically, they will in fact be brought to justice.

Snowdon: Is there anything that Australia can contribute in this area?

Fernandes: Yes, Australia can raise the matter, not only with Indonesia directly, but in appropriate international fora. Australia can take a stronger line when it comes to human rights, not just pay lip service to it. We have the murder of five Australian based journalists in Balibo in East Timor which the government has done very little about. We don't seem to be talking very strongly to the Indonesian authorities about the Munir murder either.

Snowdon: The Australian government might not see its role as getting involved in an individual case in the Indonesian justice system.

Fernandes: One of the people who was actually responsible for the murder of Munir was trained in Australia. In fact, there was a plaque that he gave the school of military intelligence in 1971. And very senior Indonesian officers have had very close links with Australia. So, having trained these people, who have then gone on to commit horrendous crimes, surely, we now have the obligation to raise the matter of their crimes.

Snowdon: You seem to be saying the Indonesian legal system is very selective?

Fernandes: The Indonesian justice system is very selective but Australia's silence in this matter means that those campaigning for justice and democracy in Indonesia have no external allies at all.