James Balowski, Jakarta
For the second time since the murder of renowned Indonesian human rights activist Munir, his family has been threatened — this time with a clear warning not to blame the Indonesian military (TNI) for his death.
On November 20, Munir's wife Suciwati receive a package in the mail containing a dismembered chicken and a note reading, "Beware. Do not connect the TNI with Munir's death. Do you want to end up like this?"
In an interview with Detik.com on November 21, Suciwati revealed that two days after Munir's murder she received an anonymous letter "welcoming" his death. "[It said] hopefully [Munir's] spirit is not being set upon by the spirits of the nation's heroes who were felled by bullets in defense of the country [that] Munir died vomiting because [he had] consumed too much money from the state or non-government organisations", she told Detik.
Suciwati has vowed not to be silenced, telling journalists "When my husband was still alive, we used to live with terror... We never told the public about it because we didn't want to give the threats importance." She has refused to say who she thinks killed her husband. "The murderer could be anyone", she said.
Thirty-eight-year-old Munir died aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight hours before landing in Amsterdam on September 7. His death was originally blamed on a heart attack but the autopsy found he died of arsenic poisoning.
Munir rose to prominence in 1998, when he was involved in investigating the abduction and torture of pro-democracy activists by the notorious elite special forces, Kopassus.
Kopassus, which has enforced terror in East Timor and Aceh, has also been linked with extremist Islamic groups such as Laskar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiah — the group blamed for the Bali bombing and the recent bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
Munir had been recently highly critical of the National Intelligence Agency over its anti-democratic terrorism bill and a law that reasserts the TNI's internal political and security role.
Rights groups are calling on the government to form a special investigation team as they believe that "people in high places" may be involved and warn that if the case goes unsolved it will sanction the continued use of political assassinations in Indonesia.
Initially the TNI remained tight-lipped, but after another threatening package was mailed to the Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial), which Munir founded, on November 23, it has denied involvement.
Speaking to journalists during the four-day Jakarta Arms Expo TNI chief General Endriartono Sutarto said speculation was blowing the case out of proportion and would hinder the investigation. He cited the Timika case as an example which had also been used to "corner" the TNI.
In August 2003, two US school teachers and an Indonesian national were shot dead in an ambush in Timika, West Papua. Indonesian police and rights groups found evidence that the TNI was behind the attack although an investigation by the FBI, which has been called a "white-wash", later exonerated the TNI and blamed "rouge elements" of the separatist Free Papua Movement. The killings remain a key sticking point in Washington's efforts to reestablish military funding and training for the TNI.
From Green Left Weekly, December 1, 2004.
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