President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono
President of Indonesia
Istana Merdeka
Jakarta 10110
Indonesia
11 May 2005
Dear
President,
Munir
murder investigations
We have
followed closely the investigations now underway into
the murder of our highly-esteemed colleague, Munir, a
foremost human rights defender who enjoyed an
outstanding reputation, both nationally and
internationally.
We are deeply
concerned with the lack of progress in the
investigations and fear that political interference in
the process may lead to the impending release of the
suspect Pollycarpus and result in charges against him
being improperly reduced from murder to the
falsification of documents.
We are also
very concerned that for political reasons no steps
appear to have been taken to appropriately prosecute
Indra Setiawan, the former chief executive of Garuda.
Setiawan issued a letter that made it possible for
Pollycarpus to intervene with Garuda personnel to move
Munir to a business class seat on board flight 974. This
appears to have facilitated the poisoning of Munir on
board the aircraft.
We believe
that firm action against all those against whom there is
sufficient evidence is essential in order to get to the
bottom of the conspiracy which led to Munir's death.
Evidence already unearthed by the team Pencari Fakta
(fact-finding team) clearly points to the role of
intelligence officials in the murder. The possible role
of government officials or agents should be of utmost
concern to your government and should be investigated
independently, thoroughly and professionally without any
political interference.
We are further
disturbed by reports that Munir's widow has received
more threats warning her that she will be "kidnapped and
blinded" if she continues to "pry into Munir's death".
We urge you to
personally instruct all government officials to allow an
independent investigation and prosecution to take place,
no matter where the evidence leads. We regard this as a
test case of your government's ability to make Indonesia
a state based on the rule of law and we ask you to
ensure that those responsible for this murder do not
enjoy impunity, as has so often been the case in the
past.
Yours
sincerely,
Paul Barber
For:
Human Rights
Watch
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, UK
International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development
(INFID)
East Timor and Indonesia
Action
Network (ETAN), US
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center
for Human Right, US
Initiatives for International
Dialogue (IID), Philippines
Asia-Pacific Solidarity
Coalition (APSOC)
Down to Earth, UK
Radio
Rakambia, East Timor
Vision Machine Film Project, UK
Southwest Organizing School, US
11.11.11 , the
Coaliton of the North South movement, Belgium
SUARAM
(Suara Rakyat Malaysia)
The Borneo Project, US
North Carolina Peace Action, US
Alliance for Global
Justice, US
Indonesian, Chinese and American Network,
US
Institute on Religion and Public Policy, US
Pan-African Coalition for the Liberation of West Papua
Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups,
comprising, AWPA (ACT), AWPA (Brisbane), AWPA
(Melbourne), AWPA (South Australia),AWPA (Sydney),
Australians for a Free West Papua, NT, AWPA Newcastle
Free West Papua Campaign, UK
Indonesia Human Rights
Committee, New Zealand
International Labor Rights
Fund, US
Human Rights First, US
International
Forum for Aceh, US
Worker Rights Consortium, US
Pax Christi USA: National Catholic Peace Movement, US
Global Ministries (United Church of Christ and also the
Christian Church, Disciples of Christ), US
Conference
of Major Superiors of Men, US
Jews Against Genocide,
US
Global Exchange, US
Additional
signatures:
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
(NISGUA), US
NIHAC (Northwest International Health
Action Coalition), US
Peace Movement Aotearoa
Watch Indonesia, Germany
West Papua Action Network,
US
HAK Association, East Timor
West Papua Action
Network, Canada
Boston Catholic Task Force for East Timor
KAIROS:
Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative
Cc: Chief of
the Indonesian police (Polri), General Da'i Bachtiar
Contact:
Paul Barber on +44 1420 80153 or +44 774 730 1739
see also
