[Kabar-indonesia] Police wary of UN rapporteur in Munir probe

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Indonesian police reject U.N. inquiry into poisoning
of right's activist

The Jakarta Post 
Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Police wary of UN rapporteur in Munir probe

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Police said Tuesday that they would not allow a
United Nations representative to take part in the
investigation of the murder of human rights campaigner
Munir, despite it being an international case.

It is not clear whether the decision could mean that Philip
Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings,
will be denied entry to Indonesia.

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said that the UN's
involvement was out of the question because it would
undermine the country's law enforcement process.

"This is our sovereignty ... we want no foreigners
interfering in the process," he said at police headquarters.

He said assistance would be preferred in the form of
technical aid, such as DNA testing.

Alston's announcement that he would press Jakarta to refresh
the investigation came after his meeting with Munir's widow,
Suciwati, in Washington two weeks ago. Suciwati traveled to
the U.S. for 10 days U.S. to seek support from international
human rights bodies and Congress.

Alston said he planned to come to Indonesia after writing to
President Yudhoyono for approval.

The police have said they are now working to gather new
evidence, although they have not said what they are looking
for.

Munir died aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam on
Sept. 7, 2004. An autopsy found an excessive level of
arsenic in his body.

The initial investigation lead to allegations that officials
at the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) were involved. Only
one person has ever been arrested, Garuda pilot Pollycarpus
Budihari Priyanto.

Pollycarpus was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison
for forging papers and the murder of Munir. The sentence was
recently reduced to two years by the Supreme Court, which
upheld the forgery charge but quashed the murder conviction,
amid much controversy.

During her trip to the U.S., Suciwati received an award from
non-governmental organization Human Rights First and spoke
about her husband's murder.

She also met with several U.S. Congressmen, who, according
Usman Hamid, an activist friend of Suciwati and Munir, said
they would push Congress to consider the murder.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda recently said that such
statements would not affect Indonesia's international
position or its relationship with the U.S.

Munir was an outspoken critic of the military, and at the
time of his death had been speaking out about corruption at
the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs
while the President, then the coordinating minister, had
been in charge.

He also defended the victims of human rights violations and
set up the independent National Commission for Missing
Persons and Victims of Violence.

President Yudhoyono, who set up a fact-finding team to
investigate Munir's murder, publicly promised that he would
ensure that the perpetrators were brought to justice, but
has remained silent since the Supreme Court issued its
controversial verdict.

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Indonesian police reject U.N. inquiry into poisoning of
right's activist

By IRWAN FIRDAUS Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, November 1 (AP) - Police on Wednesday rejected
calls for a U.N. inquiry into the death of Indonesia's
leading human rights activist, amid mounting pressure on
authorities following the acquittal of the only suspect in
the poisoning death.

Munir Said Thalib, who gained a reputation for exposing
abuses by the Indonesian military in the late 1990s, was
given a massive overdose of arsenic on a flight from Jakarta
to Amsterdam in 2004.

His widow met with U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston in
New York last month, asking that he take over the
investigation. She suspects the involvement of state
intelligence in her husband's murder.

National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam
rejected the proposal.

"It is only the Indonesian police that can carry out
criminal investigations, including in the case of Munir," he
said, adding that his country would accept technical
assistance from foreign authorities, but not legal
intervention.

Munir became violently ill and died two hours before landing
at Schipol International Airport.

An off-duty pilot with the Garuda national carrier,
Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, was accused of lacing his
food with arsenic, but the Supreme Court threw out the
charges last month, saying there was insufficient evidence.

The case attracted international attention, with the U.S.
House of Representatives and the European Union parliament
among those calling for justice.
It is seen as a key test of whether the government of
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono can break with the
traditions of Suharto, the dictator who ruled Indonesia for
32 years until democracy riots forced him to resign in 1998.

State-sponsored killings were common during Suharto's regime
and few were ever punished.

Rights groups have called on authorities to release the
findings of a fact finding commission that found Priyanto
had contact with an agent from Indonesia's intelligence
agency, information that never surfaced in court.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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