The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2, 2006
Indonesia rebuffs UN intervention over activist's murder
Correspondent in Jakarta, November 2, 2006
[PHOTO: Munir Thalib … poisoned on a Garuda flight in 2004. Photo: AP]
INDONESIA has rebuffed suggestions the United Nations investigate the murder of the
human rights activist Munir Thalib.
The police chief, General Sutanto, has said UN involvement would amount to foreign
interference and undermine Indonesia's sovereignty.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Desra Percaya, supported the police stance
yesterday, saying Indonesia would not invite the UN special rapporteur Philip Alston,
who is a professor of law at New York University, to undertake an investigation.
"It's just a nonsense for the UN rapporteur to participate in the investigation because
the judicial process is not exhausted yet," Mr Percaya said.
The President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has been criticised for not fulfilling a
promise to bring to justice those behind the arsenic poisoning of Mr Munir on a
Garuda flight to Amsterdam in 2004.
Mr Munir had been the leading campaigner against human rights abuses by the
military and intelligence agencies.
Police investigations into the murder have stalled despite a special inquiry, ordered by
Dr Yudhoyono, that implicated the State Intelligence Agency.
Numerous phone calls were uncovered between the one man arrested in the case, the
Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto, and the deputy chief of the intelligence agency in
the days surrounding the murder. Police did not pursue the phone calls.
Although Mr Pollycarpus was sentenced to 14 years' jail last year, Indonesia's
Supreme Court last month overturned his conviction. Mr Pollycarpus, allegedly an
intelligence agent, previously claimed more senior figures were behind the murder.
Mr Munir's widow, Suciwati, visited the US last month and met Professor Alston, who
reportedly said he would write to Dr Yudhoyono this month requesting permission to
undertake a new investigation. Mr Percaya said Professor Alston could only
investigate after a request from the Government, and a request would "definitely" not
be forthcoming.
Usman Hamid, the co-ordinator of the human rights watchdog Kontras, supported a
UN investigation, saying it could examine the Government's handling of the Munir
case. Professor Alston could join the police investigation or form a separate team, he
said.
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