Munir Said Thalib

Munir Said Thalib

Munir Said Thalib (December 8, 1965 Malang, East Java – September 7, 2004), affectionately known simply as "Munir", was one of Indonesia's most famous human rights and anti-corruption activist. The founder of the Kontras human rights organisation and laureate of the 2000 Right Livelihood Award, Munir was assassinated in 2004 while travelling to Utrecht University to pursue a Master's degree in international law and human rights.^[1] His last position was Executive Director of IMPARSIAL, another Indonesian human rights NGO.

Political activist career

Munir was born into a family of Hadhrami Arab and Javanese origins.^[2] He studied law at Brawijaya University in Malang in the province of East Java, and later started off his career in 1989 as a legal aid officer in the East Java provincial capital, Surabaya. He became one of Indonesia's leading human rights campaigners^{[citation needed]} and faced intimidation, including death threats. He accused the Indonesian military of human rights violations in East Timor and in the troubled provinces of Papua and Aceh, and accused them of running a criminal network involved in illegal tree logging and drug smuggling.

Assassination and aftermath

Munir was poisoned with arsenic on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004. He was travelling on state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia. It was concluded from Munir's autopsy and eye witnesses during the trial, that he had died two hours before arrival in Schiphol, Amsterdam. He took the arsenic during his flight transit in Singapore, or sometime near that time. In Singapore, Pollycarpus Priyanto, the prime suspect in Munir's trial, left the flight and then went back to Indonesia. Originally he departed from Indonesia by dead heading, with a fake document which allowed him to fly on another flight which was not his scheduled flight. Munir began to suffer acute diarrhoea and bouts of vomiting shortly after his flight took off from Singapore to Amsterdam. The cabin crew immediately reported to the pilot in command that a passenger was sick—a condition which had forced him to go to the restroom several times.^[3] Munir was treated by a doctor on board the plane but pronounced dead a short time before the plane landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

When the results of the autopsy were released two months later, on November 12, (the Netherlands Forensic Institute) revealed that Munir's body contained a level of arsenic almost three times the lethal dose. This was later confirmed by Indonesian police.

Three suspects - Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a former pilot who allegedly gave up his business class seat to Munir during the flight, and two flight attendants. It is alleged that he (Priyanto) placed the arsenic in Munir's orange juice, upon orders from Garuda's chief executive at that time, Indra Setiawan. Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono proclaimed that he will make sure that Munir's killers are brought to justice.

In December 2005 Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was found guilty of Munir's murder by an Indonesian court and sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment. Munir's supporters claim that Priyanto was acting on orders and that this was not brought out during the court case.

In October 2006, the Supreme Court invalidated the conviction against Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, citing insufficient evidence.^[1] However, in April 2007 police presented new evidence to prosecutors implicating Priyanto.^[4]

In October 2007, former president of Garuda Indra Setiawan and his deputy Rohainil Aini face trial for providing Pollycarpus with fake documents to board Munir's flight from Jakarta to Singapore. They could face the death penalty if convicted.^[5] [1]

Munir was posthumously awarded the Train Foundation's Civil Courage Prize, which recognizes "extraordinary heroes of conscience".^[6]

Personal life

Munir was married to Suciwati Munir, a labour rights activist at the time. They had two children. His wife is pursuing the investigation of Munir's assassination and works to keep Munir's case and human rights at the centre of Indonesian politics.^[7]

See also

• Human rights in Indonesia
• Activism
• Human Rights
• Indonesia
• International Humanitarian Law
• Right Livelihood Award
• Transparency International

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Munir murder conviction quashed BBC News
2. ^ Komisi Untuk Orang Hilang dan Tindak Kekerasan, Bunuh Munir!: Sebuah Buku Putih (2006) ...Munir, atau lengkapnya Munir bin Thalib dibesarkan dalam keluarga muslim keturunan Arab. Kakek moyangnya adalah imigran dari Hadhramaut (Yaman) yang ratusan...
3. ^ Rights campaigner Munir dies on plane. The Jakarta Post, September 8, 2004
4. ^ "New Munir evidence handed over". Jakarta Post. 2007-04-15. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. http://web.archive.org/web/20070929104951/http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070414.H09&irec=8. Retrieved 2007-04-15. 
5. ^ Forbes, Mark (2007-10-10). "Ex-Garuda chiefs charged over murder". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/09/1191695910401.html. 
6. ^ "Honorees". Civil Courage Prize. 2010. http://www.civilcourageprize.org/honorees.htm. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 
7. ^ Hegarty, Stephanie (24 May 2011). "Indonesian human rights widow fights for justice". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13432359. 

External links

• An Indonesian murder mystery, Bill Guerin, Asia Times, November 16, 2004
• BBC News - Indonesia widens Munir enquiry
• Dateline Archives - Garuda's Deadly Upgrade
• Indonesia pilot jailed for murder
• Munir - Right Livelihood Award laureate (2000)
• "Munir: Vanguard of reform", Sidney Jones, The Jakarta Post, September 10, 2004
• The Right Livelihood Awards - statement about Munir's poisoning
• Sydney Morning Herald - Inquiry into activist's death a test for Yudhoyono
• Washington Post - Airline Probed in Activist's Murder
• Who Killed Munir?
• Munir's Widow Calls on Indonesia to Hold His Govt. Killers Responsible - video report by Democracy Now!

Persondata
Name	Thalib, Munir Said
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 8, 1965
Place of birth
Date of death	September 7, 2004
Place of death