
In commemorating the
thirteen years after the killing of human rights defender Munir Said Thalib,
7th of September 2017, the undersigned regional and international human rights
organizations call on the Indonesian President Joko Widodo to take decisive and
concrete action to ensure those responsible - including those at the highest
levels - are brought to justice. As a first key step towards establishing the
truth, President Widodo must release the 2005 report prepared by an official
fact-finding team into Munir’s killing. Munir was a prominent Indonesian human
rights campaigner who took up the cause of dozens of activists who had been
subjected to enforced disappearances during the last months of the Suharto’s
regime in 1998.
As a human rights
defender, Munir played a significant role in uncovering evidence of security
forces’ responsibility for human rights violations in Aceh, Papua and
Timor-Leste. He received numerous threats as a result of his human rights work.
In August 2003, a bomb exploded outside his home in Jakarta. In 2002 and 2003,
the KontraS (the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence) office
where he worked was attacked by a mob, who destroyed office equipment and
forcibly took files containing information about ongoing human rights
investigations.
Munir was found dead
on a Garuda Airlines flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on 7 September 2004. An
autopsy carried out by the Dutch authorities showed that he died as a result of
arsenic poisoning. In December 2004 the Indonesian authorities formed an
official fact-finding team to investigate the murder. Although three Garuda
Airlines staff were convicted of the killing, there are credible allegations
that those responsible at the highest levels of government have not yet been
brought to justice. In 2008, Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former deputy director of
the state intelligence agency, was acquitted of soliciting and assisting in the
killing of Munir. Indonesian law scholars and human rights groups found that
the trial was fundamentally flawed. Key prosecution witnesses retracted their
sworn testimonies and failed to testify in court. In February 2010, the
National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) also identified flaws in the
police investigation, prosecution and trial of Muchdi Purwoprandjono and
recommended a new police investigation.
In September 2016,
President Widodo made a public pledge to resolve the case of Munir. But the
Indonesian authorities have still not published the 2005 report of the independent
fact-finding team on Munir’s killing, whose finding reportedly implicated
senior intelligence officers. This violates the Presidential Decree No.
111/2004 on the establishment of the fact finding team on Munir’s killing which
obliged the government to make the report public.
In October 2016, the
Public Information Commission ruled that the 2005 report should be made public
after Suciwati, Munir’s wife, filed a public information request to the
Commission. However, in February 2017, the Administrative Court repealed the
Commission’s decision on the grounds that the current government under the
administration of President Widodo had not received the report from the
previous government and therefore did not possess the document. Subsequently,
in August 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the Administrative Court’s decision
and the report has yet to be made public.
Our organizations
believe that Munir’s case cannot be seen in isolation, but is indicative of the
wider culture of impunity surrounding attacks and harassment of human rights
defenders in the country. The lack of full accountability in Munir’s case
contributes to an ongoing climate of fear among human rights defenders.
We, the undersigned regional and international civil society organizations
therefore urge the President of Indonesia Joko Widodo to take the following
steps as a matter of priority:
·
Publish the 2005 report of the fact-finding team into Munir’s killing as
a key step towards establishing the truth;
·
Establish a new, independent investigation into the murder of Munir to
ensure that all those suspected of being responsible, at all levels, are
brought to justice in proceedings that adhere to international human rights
standards;
· Review the past criminal proceedings conducted by the Attorney General
into Munir’s killing, including alleged violations of international human
rights law; in particular, investigate reports of witness intimidation and bring
those suspected of committing them to justice;
·
Take effective steps to ensure that human rights violations committed
against all human rights defenders are promptly, effectively and impartially
investigated and that those responsible are brought to justice in fair trials;
and
·
Create a safe and enabling legal environment for human rights defenders
by enacting laws on the protection of human rights defenders.
Signatories:
Amnesty International Indonesia
AHRC (Asian Human Rights Commission)
AFAD (Asian Federation Against Involuntary
Disappearances)
AJAR (Asia Justice and Rights)
ETAN (East Timor & Indonesia Action Network)
FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders
FORUM-ASIA (Asian Forum for Human Rights and
Development)
Human Rights First
Human Rights Watch
Protection International
TAPOL UK
Watch Indonesia!
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the
framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
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