Ten years ago today, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD) lost its former Chairperson, Munir Said Thalib who died of arsenic poisoning while on board a Garuda Airways flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Two civilians were convicted – Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a Garuda pilot and part-time intelligence agent who served the poisoned orange juice to Munir and Indra Setiawan, the former CEO of Garuda Airlines who ordered off duty pilot Pollycarpus to board the plane and execute the plan to murder Munir. Rohainil Aini, deputy of Indra Setiawan was later on acquitted.

However, AFAD believes the real masterminds of Munir’s untimely death remain scot free.

Retired Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwoprandjono, former deputy chief of the Indonesian National Intelligence Agency (BIN) was acquitted on 31 December 2008 as the prosecution failed to prove that he hired Pollycarpus to carry out the murder according to Judge Suharto of the South Jakarta District Court. Gen. Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, the BIN chief at the time, who was cited in court testimonies as being present in one of the meetings with Pollycarpus and Muchdi was not investigated.

“The full force of the law must be applied to all those responsible – the mastermind and convicted civilians who implemented the orders”, Mugiyanto, AFAD Chair said.

Munir’s human rights work angered high ranking military officials who were accused of human rights violations in the past and wanted him silenced. Among those he cited in the past as abusers were then Army colonel and now retired Gen. Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono and Maj. Gen. Muchdi PR. Gen. Hendropriyono was said to have led a bloody military crackdown on civilian protesters in Talangsari, Lampung, in 1989 where 45 people died and 88 others were reported missing. Maj. Gen. Muchdi on the other hand was former head of Kopassus, Indonesia’s Special Forces and was earlier accused of being involved in the kidnapping and disappearance of pro democracy activists in 1998 but was also exonerated.

AFAD believes outgoing President Yudhoyono had the necessary information in his hands to prosecute the real masterminds of Munir’s murder but lacked the courage and political will to do so.

“With only a month remaining in office, we ask to you to use the power within your hands to order a new investigation on his case directed at identifying the masterminds”, Mugiyanto, AFAD Chair said.

Mugiyanto also asked the outgoing President to ensure that documents produced by the Fact Finding Team (TPF) on the Murder of Munir formed based on Presidential Decree No 111 year 2004 be released to the public as mentioned on point nine of the said Decree, “that the Government announces the result of the investigation to public”.

AFAD also calls on incoming President Joko Widodo to reconsider his appointment of retired Gen. Hendropriyono as adviser to the team preparing his assumption into office. His presence will only cast doubt on the new government’s sincerity to fulfill a campaign promise to prosecute human rights violators and deliver justice to all victims.

The government of Indonesia is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and is thus accountable as well to the rights of human righs defenders as contained in the 1998 Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. Indonesia also signed in 2010 the Convention for the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CAED). During the drafting and negotiation process of the Convention, Munir actively participated and as a result of his death, paragraph 7 of Article 24 of the Convention which states that “Each State Party shall guarantee the right to form and participate freely in organizations and associations concerned with attempting to establish the circumstances of enforced disappearances and the fate of disappeared persons, and to assist victims of enforced disappearance” was dedicated to him.

Thus, as signatory to CAED, the Indonesian government has the moral obligation to address the ten year old unresolved assasination of Munir, Indonesia’s staunch human rights defender. In specific, Mugiyanto urges President Yudhoyono to urgently announce the result of the investigation of the Fact Finding Team on Munir and for the incoming President Joko Widodo to judicially re-open the case in order to bring the masterminds of the assasination of Munir to justice.

Signed and authenticated by:

Mugiyanto
Chairman

Mary Aileen Bacalso
Secretary-General

Links to Photos/Artworks:

• http://setobuje.deviantart.com/art/Munir-in-WPAP-199640547
• http://pinturicchio417.deviantart.com/art/Munir-282074359
• http://yudeejogja.deviantart.com/art/Munir-140977056
• http://racuntikus.deviantart.com/art/ultah-munir-wall-close-188901574
• http://racuntikus.deviantart.com/art/munir-refuse-to-forget-project-139405722