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Activists dismayed by early release of Munir assassin
Jakarta Globe - November 29, 2014
"This is a bad sign for the government of Joko Widodo," said Hendardi, the head of the Committee of Solidarity Action for Munir (Kasum).
Hendardi, who is also the head of the Setara Institute, a rights advocacy group, said the release reflected poorly on the president's commitment to upholding human rights.
Another Kasum executive, Choirul Anam, said the group had contacted the president's office to request a review of the parole order.
"Joko should have reopened Munir's case instead of granting the release," Choirul said. "It is true a release on parole is the right of every inmate, but it should not apply to someone who has committed a serious human rights offense," Choirul added.
Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial) executive director Poengki Indarti agreed the release order was a discouraging sign of the government's commitment to investigating past crimes.
"Pollycarpus's release has pushed back justice for Munir and farther away for other human rights campaigners, and this will damage Jokowi's image," she said.
The Justice Ministry's director general of corrections, Handoyo Sudrajat, confirmed Pollycarpus's release and said the newly installed minister, Yasonna.H. Laoly, had signed the parole document after agreeing that Pollycarpus had met the requirements for an early release.
An unsolved case
Poengki emphasized, however, that the greater issue remained that no one besides Pollycarpus had been convicted for a crime that activists maintain was likely state sponsored. Campaigners have long pointed to a total absence of personal motive for Pollycarpus to murder Munir, who was an indefatigable critic of the Indonesian military.
Munir founded the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) to advocate justice for the victims of abuses committed by the state.
His vocal criticism of the excesses of the state came to a painful end on Sept. 7, 2004, on board a flight to Amsterdam. The 38-year-old was on his way to study international humanitarian law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Former Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus was seated next to Munir on the flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. The flight included a stop in Singapore to refuel and take on more passengers. Pollycarpus was seen offering Munir a coffee at Singapore's Changi International Airport. A court later found that this drink had been spiked with arsenic.
Munir reboarded the plane on to Amsterdam while Pollycarpus remained in Singapore. The activist died in agony before the plane landed in the Netherlands.
In the subsequent investigation, witnesses testified that Pollycarpus was a frequent visitor to the headquarters of Indonesia's National Intelligence Agency, the BIN, where he would meet with the deputy head of intelligence, Muchdi Purwoprandjono. The head of Indonesian intelligence at the time, Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, was also present for at least one of those meetings.
Activists have accused Muchdi and Hendropriyono of involvement in Munir's murder, but neither man has been convicted. Muchdi was acquitted by a court while Hendropriyono, who Joko has taken on as a key adviser, was never charged.
'A test of our history' – again
Activists hope the case does not represent a false dawn for Indonesia's future commitment to confronting and shining new light on the darker corners of its past.
Joko and Vice President Jusuf Kalla made mention of human rights on the campaign trail, promoting their credentials while pointing to the checkered rights record of their opponent, former Army general Prabowo Subianto.
There was, however, disappointment in activist circles when Joko placed Hendropriyono in a senior role in his government. They maintain that Hendropriyono is damaged goods and not someone to whom a reformist president should have given a seat at the table.
Munir's supporters will certainly continue to advocate for the case to be reopened, but human rights campaigners in general will point to stern rights tests throughout the country that Joko's administration will face over the next five years.
These include demands in Aceh – the semiautonomous province that waged a 30-year separatist struggle against Jakarta – for a truth and reconciliation commission to examine abuses perpetuated by Acehnese rebels and the Indonesian military; a loosening of the restrictions placed on foreign journalists from reporting in the restive province of Papua; and a strengthening of Indonesia's indigenous peoples' rights against land grabs for purposes including, but not limited to, oil palm cultivation.
Many also hope that Joko's much-vaunted "mental revolution" – a cornerstone of his presidential campaign epitomizing his pitch as a reformer – will stretch to confronting the 1965-66 massacre of anyone thought to be a communist sympathizer, in which more than half a million people were killed by the military and state-backed militias.
Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said justice for Munir was "a test of our history" when he assumed office in 2004, and personally promised the activist's widow, Suciwati, that he would resolve the case before the end of his term. He never did.
A decade later, Joko faces the same examination, and some activists say that the new administration has not got off to a good start.
"Parole for Pollycarpus has not only hurt the sense of justice for Munir's family and friends," Hendardi said. "It has also damaged public justice and democracy in Indonesia."
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