Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – With its June 23 deadline looming, the Munir murder fact-finding team has yet to complete its task of identifying the killers of the noted human rights campaigner, and the government is being urged to extend the team's term and empower it so it can finish its job.
The team, assigned to assist the National Police in investigating the murder, has found it hard to conclude the probe because several top officials of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), including its former chief A.M. Hendropriyono, have refused to cooperate with the team.
"I propose that the President extend the team's working term and grant it extraordinary powers equivalent to the police's authority. With such power, all persons and institutions can be forced to cooperate with the team," Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, a legislator with the United Development Party (PPP), told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Lukman, a member of a special team formed by the House of Representatives to monitor the Munir murder probe, said the extension of the government-sanctioned team's term was needed to help it collect more evidence, which he believed the National Police would have difficulty in investigating.
"During its six-month working term, the team has achieved significant progress including uncovering possible links between several BIN agents and the murder," Lukman said. "The other progress that the team has made is uncovering the involvement of several Garuda crew members in the matter."
"Therefore, the President should consider giving more time and opportunity for the team because this case is a test case for him (the President) and the nation in resolving problems of human rights abuse," Lukman said, warning that the public and international community were closely monitoring the case.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up the fact-finding team on Dec. 23 to help police investigate the poisoning death of Munir. The rights campaigner died while aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on Sept. 7 last year. An autopsy by Dutch authorities discovered excessive levels of arsenic in his body.
Because sources and documents from BIN required further clarification, Susilo extended the team's working term by another three months until June 23, 2005.
Meanwhile, the team's secretary general, Usman Hamid, said legal arrangements between Indonesia and the Netherlands authorities were also required to enable the team to question a Garuda passenger with Dutch citizenship, Lie Khie Ngian, who sat beside Munir during the same flight to Amsterdam.
"The Netherlands has scrapped the death penalty from its legal system and it has a commitment not to provide legal assistance to countries, including Indonesia, which maintain this most severe sentence. In the case of Munir, such a condition has also been set out by the Netherlands (for the team to question Dutch witnesses), unless our government can be more cooperative by promising not to impose the death penalty on Munir's killers," Usman told the Post.
Lie is known as a chemistry expert. In the middle of the investigation into Munir's death, Lie and his wife visited the East Java capital of Surabaya for "personal reasons", a source said.
During his brief visit to Surabaya, the National Police had time to question Lie but found no strong indication that he played any role in the murder. He was believed to have given a bottle of mineral water to Munir when the arsenic began to take effect, added the source.