Munir Update
An update on a story we brought you earlier this year on the assassination of Indonesia's leading human rights activist, Munir Said Thalib, poisoned on a fateful Garuda Airlines flight out of Jakarta. The case continues to capture the imagination of the Indonesian public with attention now having shifted away from Garuda to the country's National Intelligence Agency. But, as David O'Shea reports, there are still plenty of legal and political hurdles ahead in the aftermath of Munir's death.
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Munir Pollycarpus Hendropriyono
REPORTER: David O’Shea
In September last year, Suciwati's husband, Munir Said Thalib, was poisoned on a Garuda Airlines flight to Holland. Top officials from the airline and the country's national intelligence agency are suspected of involvement in his murder.AIR HOSTESS: The flight time to Makassar will be two hours at an altitude of 33,000 feet.
In her effort to keep the still unresolved case alive, she's travelled to Europe and the United States to meet government and UN figures. Here in Indonesia, she is traversing the archipelago. The next stop in her tireless campaign is to South Sulawesi.
SUCIWATI (Translation): If we keep quiet there will be more victims. I'm not just talking about the death of my husband. In the future it could endanger human rights and democracy in Indonesia. Even an internationally known activist can be murdered. The message is, "I can kill Munir and I can kill you."
We are on our way to a local cafe that's been hired for a public discussion about the case.
The event draws a small crowd of university students, activists and journalists, interested in hearing the latest developments. I reported on Munir's murder in March of this year. That story has been copied and burned with Indonesian subtitles and is shown before the discussion begins.
Munir was best known for his fearless pursuit of Indonesia's generals, seeking justice for their many victims.PROTESTER (Translation): They are only tough in their uniforms because deep down they are scum, they are irresponsible, and they will pay.
But it was Munir who paid. He'd lost count of the number of death threats he'd received over the years. But it wasn't until he left Indonesia to study in Holland that the plotters made their move.
On the Jakarta-to-Singapore leg of his journey, a deadly dose of arsenic was added to his welcome drink. He was dead on arrival in Amsterdam. When a Dutch autopsy revealed that Munir had been poisoned, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set up a fact-finding team to investigate the murder.
A Garuda pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, was the early focus of the investigation. Pollycarpus had offered Munir his own seat - 3K, in business class, allegedly setting him up for the kill. He'd also called Munir several times before his departure.
Investigators soon discovered Pollycarpus was connected to the national intelligence agency. Over the following weeks, the fact-finding team concluded there had been a wide-ranging conspiracy, involving, among others, the senior management of the national carrier.
The then-executive director of Garuda, Indra Setiawan, had authorised Pollycarpus to be on the flight with Munir.REPORTER: But what was his specific purpose to go to Singapore?
INDRA SETIAWAN, GARUDA DIRECTOR: You ask Mr Rabel, because...
REPORTER: I did before and he asked me to ask you!
INDRA SETIAWAN: Oh, really? Oh, no, no, no.
Since my story was broadcast, dramatic new details have emerged. First, the fact-finding team uncovered documents which showed a meeting had taken place at the National Intelligence Agency, BIN, to discuss possible scenarios for killing Munir.
According to the team's leader, four methods were considered - arranging a car accident, adding poison to his food at his office, using black magic or poisoning him on board a Garuda flight.
Then it was revealed that the chief suspect, Pollycarpus, had called a silent number at BIN 35 times before and just after the murder. The number turned out to belong to former army special forces chief Muchdi Purwopranjono, BIN deputy director at the time. For his part, he denies ever receiving the calls or playing any part in the plot. The TPF even found out where the arsenic had been purchased - a chemical shop in downtown Jakarta.
On 24 June, as its 6-month mandate ended, the fact-finding team delivered its report to the President. Reporters wanted to know how long the President would need before taking action.PRESIDENTIAL AIDE SUDI SILALAHI, (Translation): He's not the type to set targets in terms of months. It will be done as quickly as possible, within a week he deals with this sort of thing very quickly. If it can be done quickly, why wait months?
But with suspicion levelled directly at an institution as powerful as the National Intelligence Agency, fact-finding team member Usman Hamid was pessimistic.
USMAN HAMID (Translation): Some top officials and police will resist efforts to solve this case. We are sure to encounter obstacles and attempts at a cover-up. I'm sure, I'm convinced that police are being pressured.
Hamid says that solving the case will be a test of the President's own authority.
USMAN HAMID: If the President has real authority, then all the institutions and officials under him have to fully cooperate to pursue this case.
Nothing that has happened so far gives much hope of that happening. But the President may be waiting to see what the courts decide.
The Garuda pilot and secret agent Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto faced trial for the first time last week. There was disappointment when no mention was made in court of his link to the National Intelligence Agency. But activists are determined to expose the people behind Pollycarpus.
Retired general Hendropriyono was the National Intelligence Agency chief at the time of Munir's death. Many Indonesians now believe that he ordered the assassination.SUCIWATI (Translation): That's what the police need to investigate. We have to draw the line. If we say, "Actually, it's like this..." we can't do that. But really we do know the motives. According to the TPF there were a number of motives. Who are the players with political motives? The motive behind Munir's murder is clear, and leads to one person.
Although there's no proof that Hendropriyono had anything to do with Munir's murder, it's a very popular theory here. The fact-finding team, or TPF, had identified him as a key figure in its investigations. It repeatedly summoned him for questioning, but he never showed up. Instead, two days before handing their report to the President, Hendropriyono launched a public-relations counter-strike.
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): If the police summoned me today I would appear today. If the police summon you, any citizen must attend. But if I'm summoned by politicians, those in power, then I say, "Well, wait a minute." What right do you have to summons me? and the TPF doesn't have authority to issue summonses.
At the very least, the former head of the National Intelligence Agency could surely help the TPF with their enquiries.
REPORTER (Translation): Why not just attend? If you're not guilty, why create problems?
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): I personally have a schedule. I have to feed my grandchildren, I have to visit the scenes of natural disasters, I do charity work, and it all has a schedule. Just because I am retired, do you think I've nothing to do? I do have things to do.
REPORTER (Translation): Do you agree with the TPF that there was a conspiracy to kill Munir?
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): No, I don't know. I haven't investigated that far. What's important, they should come here and ask me - they can ask. 24 hours, my house and my office are open for TP of anybody else.
The former head of intelligence clearly doesn't think it ironic that he is clueless about a major case that occurred under his watch.
REPORTER (Translation): But you were intelligence head. Don't you know who killed Munir?
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): No.
REPORTER (Translation): But you are a clever man. I don't know.
REPORTER (Translation): You were intelligence head.
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): If I knew I'd tell the police. If someone kills someone...
REPORTER (Translation): Isn't that a weakness in the intelligence service - when its leader doesn't know the killer?
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): You have to learn about Indonesian intelligence. If I was kidnapped and taken overseas and interrogated I could reveal all of Indonesia's intelligence, from A to Z. That can't happen. That's why I can't know too much. Not just me, all agents. They only know the case they're working on.
Hendropriyono says that when he first heard about Munir's death, he assumed it was from natural causes.
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): A natural death? Yes, death's natural. We all die. I will too. What's not natural...
REPORTER (Translation): But not with a belly full of arsenic?
HENDROPRIYONO (Translation): That's the reason... You should learn proper Indonesian. We have been talking about this issue for some time. We thought it was a natural death, we didn't know it was murder. Once we suspected it was murder, we said, "investigate."
And as far as Hendropriyono is concerned, that was the end of that. After the screening in South Sulawesi, Suciwati says the President will need prodding if he is to take on the powerful men who may be behind her husband's death.
SUCIWATI (Translation): I'll keep asking and I want you all to keep asking the President, do something, keep asking about this case. I'm sure, I am sure the President will feel uncomfortable if we keep asking him the same questions.
Suciwati believes a proper police investigation could reveal an incredible motive behind her husband's murder, one that should make the President sit up and take notice. The theory goes like this - Munir was killed just two weeks before the presidential election as part of a plot to influence the result.
Munir's death was initially blamed on the military - a logical assumption when you consider his anti-military views. That assumption could have been disastrous for the leading presidential candidate, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general.
At the time, intelligence chief Hendropriyono was president Megawati Sukarnoputri's election campaign manager and he was promoting her as the anti-military candidate.SUCIWATI (Translation): During the presidential election, there were two candidates, one civilian and one from the military. Munir was known to be critical of the military. Perhaps the political rivalry got dirty. And Munir was sacrificed to help one of the candidates win. That may be the case.
REPORTER (Translation): The anti-military one
SUCIWATI (Translation): That's right. It could well be. I can't say it's a fact because it has to be proved. It's the job of the police to find out more and who was involved.
Suciwati ends her trip to South Sulawesi with a visit to a local radio station. She feels she has to take whatever opportunity arises to publicise the campaign and push for justice, no matter what the risk.
SUCIWATI (Translation): It is dangerous but we can't be afraid. We can't turn back because of this terror. This is terror, but we have to confront it, so in the future we'll continue campaigning so this won't happen again and the case is finalised.
