Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A special rapporteur has submitted a report on the 2004 murder of Indonesian rights activist Munir Said Thalib to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR).
The report stresses the importance for Jakarta to make public the results of an investigation by an independent team and thoroughly settle the case.
Philips Alston, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, filed the report during a UNHCHR conference on March 28 in New York, which was attended by an Indonesian delegate.
"The government of Indonesia should release the final report of the (defunct) presidential fact-finding team and investigate all those implicated in the murder of Munir Said Thalib," Alston said in his report.
He also expressed deep concern over the October 2006 verdict of the Supreme Court, which cleared Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto of murder charges, despite reported evidence of a conspiracy involving numerous suspects, including some high-ranking intelligence officers.
Pollycarpus, an off-duty Garuda pilot, was on the same Garuda Indonesia flight with Munir from Singapore to the Netherlands on Sept. 6, 2004. Munir was found dead of arsenic poisoning upon arrival at Schiphol Airport.
The fact-finding team set up by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Dec. 23, 2004, carried out a preliminary investigation into the case and recommended a further inquiry into intelligence officers implicated in the murder. However, the President has yet to make public the investigation's final results.
Alston said Jakarta had been cooperative, but had yet to thoroughly investigate the murder.
The report said three senior intelligence officers – Maj. Gen. Muchdi PR, Gen. (ret) AM Hendropriyono and Col. (ret) Bambang Irawan – refused to be interviewed by the fact-finding team and failed to provide documents needed for further investigation.
The President asked the police to reopen the case following Pollycarpus' acquittal by the Supreme Court. However, the investigation, led by the head of the National Police's Detective and Investigative Unit, Comr. Gen. Bambang Hendarso, has yet to achieve any significant progress.
Hendardi, a member of the fact-finding team, and Munir's wife Suciwati, who recently met with Yudhoyono, could not describe the progress of the police investigation but said new suspects in the case were expected to be announced soon.
"We will continue monitoring the police's progress in their investigation into the case," said Suciwati.
Asmara Nababan, executive director of rights monitoring group Demos, Usman Hamid, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, and Rusdi Marpaung, executive director of rights group Impartial, welcomed the decision to bring the Munir murder to the UNHCHR. They said this would put pressure on Indonesia, which is a member of the UN body, to resolve the case.
"Indonesia will face strong resistance from other members if it wants to maintain its membership in the UNHCHR in May and if it questions human rights violations in other countries," said Asmara.