Munir died
on Sept. 7, 2004, on board a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam as it
flew over Budapest. Hours before his death, as the plane made a short stop in
Singapore, Munir was offered a cup of coffee by Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto,
an off-duty Garuda pilot and suspected State Intelligence Agency (BIN)
operative, who laced the coffee with a lethal dose of arsenic.
Pollycarpus was sentenced to 14 years in
prison after the Central Jakarta District Court, on Dec. 1, 2005, found him
guilty of murdering Munir.
But those who masterminded the murder,
giving Pollycarpus his orders, remain beyond the reach of the law.
An independent fact-finding team,
established by then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in November 2014, found
that immediately prior to and after Munir’s death, Pollycarpus had communicated
extensively with Muchdi Purwoprandjono, who at the time was a deputy chief of
the BIN.
In their court testimonies, several
intelligence officials also said that Pollycarpus often visited the BIN
headquarters and met behind closed doors with Muchdi. In at least one of those
meetings, Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, the BIN chief at the time, was also
present.
The South Jakarta District Court, however,
acquitted Muchdi of all charges on Dec. 31, 2008, despite the judges hearing in
Pollycarpus’s trial ruling that Pollycarpus had acted on Muchdi’s instructions.
Hendropriyono was never charged.
A fearless man
Munir was a fearless human rights defender
who was not afraid to speak out for victims of injustice even during
former president Suharto's New Order regime, when activists were often jailed
or kidnapped.
Without Munir, we would have
remained blinded by the fact that for years the military was involved in
some of the world's worst mass killings, forced disappearances, running
protection rackets for big businesses and criminals without fear of
prosecution.
He had helped uncover the murder of labor
activist Marsinah, who was kidnapped and murdered by the military for demanding
her company to obey the local minimum wage requirements in 1993. He had also
represented Suharto's critics and political foes and unraveled the kidnapping
and torture of 23 students and activists in 1997 and 1998 -- one has
been confirmed dead and 13 are still missing and presumed killed.
Munir investigated the massive loss of
civilian lives following the 1999 referendum in East Timor as well as gross
human rights violations in the restive areas of Papua and Aceh.
Given these achievements, it would
be fitting that the government unravel the truth behind his death or at
the very least honor him by carrying on his important work.
Instead, the government did the opposite.
The people Munir was fighting against, those he accused of gross human rights
violations, now hold powerful positions in Joko's administration.
Hendropriyono, the man linked to but never
charged for Munir's murder, the former military officer Munir accused of being
responsible for the massacre of 27 civilian protesters in Talangsari, Lampung,
in 1989, served as an adviser to the president during his 2014 campaign.
Wiranto, the former military chief
believed to have been responsible for the deaths of thousands in the aftermath
of the 1999 East Timor secession from Indonesia, is now the leader of a party
in Joko's coalition, the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).
The president has also named as his
defense minister retired general Ryamizard Ryacudu, who led several military
campaigns in Aceh and Papua that resulted countless civilian casualties.
The current intelligence chief, Sutiyoso,
also a chairman of a party in Joko’s coalition, the Indonesian Justice and
Unity Party (PKPI), was the commander of the Jakarta Military Command when his
men carried out a deadly military raid in front of the Indonesian Democratic
Party (PDI) headquarters in 1996 to oust then-chairwoman Megawati
Soekarnoputri.
Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's
first president Sukarno, who was ousted after the 1965-66 massacre of suspected
Communist members and sympathizers, eventually set out to form her own party:
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of which Joko is a member.
In June, the government announced it would
establish a “reconciliation commission” to seek a “permanent solution for all
unresolved human rights abuses,” which Munir had spent his lifetime to uncover.
But it seems the focus of the commission
is to seek compensation for victims and not to bring those responsible to
justice. Joko's administration has also refused to reopen Munir's murder case
and instead provided a parole for the person convicted of poisioning Munir,
Pollycarpus, on Nov. 28, 2014.
Munir has given up so much for the
country, even his life, fighting for countless victims of injustice despite the
constant death threats he and his family received.
We, the powerless, can only voice our
anguish through articles and social media posts, through weekly rallies known
as “Kamisan” in front of the State Palace every Thursday and immortalize the
legend that is Munir in murals, T-shirts and books, wishing that the true
killers of Munir will some day face justice.
Meanwhile, the powerful say and do
nothing, not even three of the student activists who were kidnapped in 1997-98
who have now become some of the country's top politicians.
It is through his work that we as a nation
realize that we must not let this country again fall under military rule.
Munir has inspired us to speak up and
fight. He had helped us realize that injustice, no matter how puny must not be
tolerated, which also means that the killer of an innocent, young newly-wedded
woman must not walk free, whoever it may be.
Nivell Rayda is a news editor at the
Jakarta Globe and author
No comments:
Post a Comment