Indonesian Activist Poisoned: Demand Answers

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From Defender Alert Network:

Indonesian Activist Poisoned: Demand Answers

"Garuda officials were very defensive in the meeting and seemed to be trying to cover up something."

Police Brigadier-General Marsudi Hannafi, chair of the Fact-Finding Team, March 1, 2005

One of Indonesia's foremost human rights defenders, Munir, died six months ago on a flight to Amsterdam on the Indonesian state airline Garuda. An autopsy revealed a fatal dose of arsenic in the activist's system.

Due to the efforts of Munir's colleagues and activists like you, at the end of last year the Indonesian government approved an independent fact-finding team to work alongside the police investigation.

But progress has been slow. One obstacle has been the failure of the airline to cooperate fully with the investigation. The role of the airline is important. Not only did the death take place aboard a Garuda flight, but there have also been widespread media reports of discrepancies in the account of the off-duty Garuda pilot who offered Munir his business-class seat. On March 1, the police brigadier general who chairs the fact-finding team stated that the pilot "could be named a suspect in the case." Obstacles include:

• Despite three weeks notice, at the last minute Garuda officials cancelled a reconstruction of the crime planned for January 22. (The exercise, a standard step in Indonesian police investigations, was postponed a second time on March 1, though there were conflicting reports of whether this was at the request of the police or the airline).
  
• Garuda has not conducted an internal investigation despites its pledge to the fact-finding team.
  
• According to Brigadier General Marsudi the letter authorizing the employee's trip to Singapore was dated September 4, but was in fact created on September 17, ten days after the death of Munir.

Please urge Garuda Indonesia to cooperate fully with the police investigation and the fact-finding team in solving this case.

Click Here to Take Action: http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/munir3/ii86xu6407txik3

Click here for more information on Munir.