Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – The reappointment of Brig. Gen. Surya Dharma Nasution to lead the police team probing the murder of human rights champion Munir will only undermine the police and the President's credibility, activists said Saturday.
Surya led the police team formed in 2004 to investigate the murder but was later replaced by Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi, now South Sumatra deputy police chief.
"He was replaced by Marsudi because he failed," Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) executive director Usman Hamid told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Surya currently heads the transnational crimes division at the National Police. He was reappointed as the team's chief Friday, replacing Marsudi. "We have to say 'no' to this team. It will not work. It will only undermine the credibility of National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," he said.
Rachlan Nasidik, the executive director of rights group Imparsial, said the government-sanctioned fact-finding team had filed a report to the President that Surya was among officers reluctant to investigate Munir's murder.
"The investigation into the phone contacts between (Garuda pilot) Pollycarpus and Muchdi PR (of the National Intelligence Agency, BIN) was carried out by the government-sanctioned fact-finding team because Surya had done nothing about it for months," Rachlan said.
Muchdi has denied involvement in the murder. Meanwhile, former BIN chief Hendropriyono has said the agency had no role in the murder, although he conceded BIN officers may have been involved in their private capacities.
Usman said he doubted Surya had the will to probe the Munir case because the police general was known to be a close associate of Muchdi. He challenged Sutanto to prove the police were unafraid to investigate all people implicated in Munir's murder, even if one was a "military general".
Pollycarpus was the only person convicted for the Sept. 7, 2004, murder of Munir. He was sentenced to 14 years' jail but the term was cut to two years last week by the Supreme Court after an appeal. The court declared Pollycarpus not guilty of killing Munir but guilty of falsifying a document that allowed him to travel on the same aircraft as the activist.
Since the latest verdict, rights groups have increased calls for subsequent investigations to focus on the alleged role of BIN officers in Munir's murder. When earlier convicting Pollycarpus, the Jakarta District Court concluded he "did not act alone".
The groups have demanded investigators follow up the many phone calls made by Pollycarpus to Muchdi's cell phone days before Munir was found dead on a Amsterdam-bound Garuda plane.
Usman said the police had not seriously probed the case and instead had blocked the investigation. "Why has (Surya) been appointed as the team's new chief?" he said.
A former member of the fact-finding team, Asmara Nababan, said Surya often ignored findings and recommendations made by the team. "We came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the police's work," he told the Post.
Asmara said the need for the police to be audited by an independent body was urgent because they were "not allowed to be objective about the matter." "The audit will reveal whether the police are unable or simply unwilling to find Munir's killer," he said.
Munir was murdered in 2004 on a Garuda flight to the Netherlands. An autopsy found a lethal dose of arsenic in his body.
The police have vowed to speed up the murder probe after President Yudhoyono ordered Sutanto to revitalize the team.
Yudhoyono earlier promised Munir's widow, Suciwati, the government would find the people responsible for her husband's murder.