AFAD Commemorates the 12th Anniversary of Munir`s Assassination

AFAD Commemorates the 12th Anniversary of Munir’s Assassination

 

Today the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD) commemorates the twelfth anniversary since the assassination of its former Chairperson, Munir Said Thalib.

Munir was an internationally-known human rights defender who had won a scholarship from the Utrecht University in the Netherlands, in order to pursue a master’s degree in international relations and human rights. On 6 September 2004, he took a Garuda Airlines Flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, but he never reached his destination. He was poisoned with arsenic and pronounced dead approximately two hours before the plane landed in Schipol airport, on 7 September 2004.

Munir’s human rights work had angered high ranking military officials, who were accused of human rights violations in the past. Indeed, Munir as Chairperson of the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), had led an investigation into the abductions and the disappearance of students calling for the ouster of Suharto in 1998.

Two people have been convincted for Munir’s death, namely, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a Garuda pilot and part-time intelligence agent who served the poisoned orange juice to Munir, and Indra Setiawan, the former CEO of Garuda Airlines who ordered the off-duty pilot Pollycarpus to board the
plane and execute the plan to murder Munir.

Although the two individuals who materially carried out the assassination were convicted, the masterminds of the plan were either never investigated, or later acquitted.

Munir had also been actively participating in the drafting and negotiation process of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED). As a result of his death, paragraph 7 of Article 24 of the Convention, which states that “Each State Party shall guarantee the
right to form and participate freely in organizations and associations concerned with attempting to establish the circumstances of enforced disappearances and the fate of disappeared persons, and to assist victims of enforced disappearance”, was dedicated to him.

After Munir’s assassination, the government of Indonesia formed a Fact Finding Team (TPF) on the basis of Presidential Decree No 111 of 2004, to investigate on his murder. The result of the investigation showed that the State's intelligence agency was involved in Munir's murder. According to the Decree, the Government is required to announce the result of the investigation to the public; however, these results have never been published. As such, an information dispute has been filed in front of the Central Information Commission (KIP) in Jakarta in the past months.

Today, as we commemorate the 12th Anniversary since Munir’s assassination, we are reminded of the threats that human rights defenders continue to face in Asia and all over the world and of the imperative to shed light on these and other instances, so that justice be finally done and violations not repeated.

In these difficult times, when those who defend human rights are themselves experiencing intimidations, harassment and are even made to disappear, AFAD is strengthens further its commitment to carry on its struggle to ensure that Munir’s struggles were not made in vain and that the values he was defending will keep inspiring our work.

 

JUSTICE FOR MUNIR!

JUSTICE FOR ALL!

 

 

Manila, 7 September 2016

 

Khurram Parvez: AFAD's Chairperson

Mary Aileen D. Bacalso: AFAD's Secretary-General