Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2004 - Indonesia

Lack of investigation into the assassination and disappearance of two human rights volunteers⁷⁴

In late 2004, no progress had been made on the cases of the assassination and disappearance of Messrs. Abdussalam Muhamad Deli and Raja Ismail.

Mr. Abdussalam Muhamad Deli, a 23 year-old volunteer of the Human Rights and Legal Aid post East Acheh (PB-HAM), an NGO that carries out advocacy through data collection, campaigning and legal assistance, has been missing since 11 May 2003. He was travelling from Central Langsa on a small public bus to visit his family's village when his bus was stopped by unknown men in civilian clothing. They forced him out of the bus into a car and drove away in the direction of the city of Langsa. No news of his whereabouts has been heard since then.

On the same day, Mr. Raja Ismail, a volunteer of PB-HAM, was reportedly abducted outside Langsa. On 13 May 2003, his body was found in the Titi Kembar river in Langsa Lama village, East Aceh district. The corpse showed signs of strangling, as well as knife wounds and bruises.

Assassination of Mr. Munir, co-founder of KONTRAS⁷⁵

In 2002 and May 2003, Mr. Munir, co-founder of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Komisi untuk Orang Hilang dan Korban Tindak Kekerasan – KONTRAS), and other members of KONTRAS had been attacked by members of the Veterans' Youth (Pemuda Panca Marga – PPM) for their criticism against the Indonesian government's policy in handling the Aceh problem.⁷⁶

Mr. Munir died on 7 September 2004, on board of a flight to Amsterdam. It was reported that he started feeling sick before his transit in Singapore and died shortly before landing in The Netherlands.

On 11 November 2004, the Dutch Forensic Institute made public the findings of an autopsy revealing the presence of a lethal dose of arsenic in Mr. Munir's body, which confirmed the fears that his death, during his travel from Jakarta (Indonesia) to Amsterdam (The Netherlands), was an assassination.

Mr. Munir, as a leader of KONTRAS, had played a leading role in investigating human rights violations committed by the Indonesian Army, notably in East Timor. He had taken up numerous cases of disappeared activists in Indonesia, from Aceh to Papua, during the Suharto dictatorship. He had also been active in the Legal Aid Institution.

On 20 November 2004, Mr. Munir's wife, Mrs. Suciwati, received a dead chicken by mail at her home with a threatening note warning her that if she linked her husband's murder to the TNI (the Indonesian Armed Forces), she would "end up like this chicken". She immediately reported the death threat to the police, who arrived at her house only four hours later. According to Mrs. Suciwati, she and her husband had received several threats in the past.

The Indonesian authorities initiated an enquiry into Mr. Munir's death following the announcement of the results of the autopsy. At a meeting in late November 2004, government representatives, Mrs. Suciwati and NGO representatives reportedly agreed upon the setting up of an independent team to investigate the case, in addition to the criminal investigation that was initiated, due to the seemingly political nature of the assassination.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

74. See Annual Report 2003.

75. See Open Letter to the Indonesian authorities, 1 December 2004.

76. See Annual Report 2003.