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Mastermind of Munir's murder must be brought to justice

24 June 2005

In a report drawn up on completion of its investigations into the murder of Indonesia's foremost human rights activist Munir, the Fact-Finding Team set up by presidential decree has drawn attention to the role of high-ranking officials of the country's leading intelligence agency, BIN, in the conspiracy that led to his murder.

In its 100 page report submitted to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono today, the Team describes the role of several BIN officials, and identifies the mastermind and final executioner. While these details have not yet been made public, members of the Team made it clear that former BIN chief, retired general A.M. Hendropriyono is high on their list of suspects. Hendropriyono was chief of BIN at the time of Munir's murder and is a close political associate of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Munir died on 7 September last year on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam from a lethal dose of arsenic added to a drink during the first leg of the flight from Jakarta to Singapore.

Munir was for years a thorn in the side of many senior army officers because of his relentless pursuit of the perpetrators of atrocities. He was a key member of a commission which investigated atrocities in East Timor in 1999 in the aftermath of the referendum which led to independence which named a number of Indonesian officers responsible for the slaughter.

Among his many campaigns for justice was the exposure of the army's role in the killing of dozens of peasants in Lampung, South Sumatra in 1987, when Hendropriyono was the district military commander there.

During the course of the Team's investigations, Hendropriyono has gone out of his way to denigrate its work, accusing it of lack of professionalism and arrogance and even filing a complaint with the police against two of its members. On three occasions, he refused to respond to a summons from the Team to answer questions, despite a clear directive from the President for all state institutions and officials to collaborate with the Team.

As yet, only three suspects have been named, all of them employees of the national airline Garuda, who were on Garuda Flight 974 on 7 September 2004, when Munir was poisoned. One of the suspects, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who had been given a highly suspicious assignment as aviation security officer for the flight, is now under arrest and faces charges of premeditated murder, forgery and conspiracy.

According to the Team's investigations, Pollycarpus was in frequent communication before and after the murder with a deputy head of BIN, Major-General Muchdi Purwopranjoyo, a former member of Kopassus, who was sacked following Munir's investigations into a series of abductions of activists in early 1998, shortly before the downfall of President Suharto.

After completing its work today, the Fact-Finding Team acknowledged that the matter would now be in the hands of the police. However, aware of the unsatisfactory nature of the police investigations so far, the Team called for a monitoring group to keep a check on the police handling of the case. While TAPOL welcomes the arrest and forthcoming trial of Pollycarpus as a move in the right direction, it believes that justice can only be done if action is taken without delay against those who conspired to assassinate Munir.

Throughout his life as an activist, Munir repeatedly condemned the impunity enjoyed by army officers. Those who conspired to put an end to his fearless struggle for justice must not now be allowed to enjoy impunity while lower-ranking executioners are punished.

TAPOL urges the Indonesian police to name retired General Hendropriyono as a suspect and to initiate proceedings for him and his cohorts in BIN to be brought to justice.

President Yudhoyono has rightly described the Munir murder as a test case for Indonesia. By ensuring that those responsible for the murder are brought to justice, the President will greatly enhance Indonesia's reputation for upholding the rule of law, both at home and abroad.

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