JKW asked to honor pledge to resolve Munir murder

JAKARTA. The Central Information Commission’s (KIP) ruling that the government must disclose the findings of the investigation into the 2004 murder of human rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib should serve as an occasion for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to honor his commitment to resolve past human rights abuses, activists said on Tuesday.

They said that publishing the report authored by a government-commissioned fact-finding team would prove that Jokowi’s recent pledge to resolve gross human rights abuses was not mere lip service.  

“KIP’s instruction is a great opportunity for Jokowi, who will mark his first two years in office on Oct. 20, to show progress in resolving human rights violations,” said Putri Kanesia of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), an NGO that Munir once led.

Jokowi reiterated his pledge to settle past rights abuses during an audience last month with more than a dozen prominent legal experts, including Todung Mulya Lubis, Yenti Ganarsih and Mahfud MD.

Hendardi, director of the Setara Institute – an NGO promoting equality and a member of the fact-finding team set up by then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono – said Jokowi was responsible for resolving the Munir case.

“Now that KIP has asked the government to make the report public, we can sue the government if they [the State Secretariat] stick to their claim that they do not have the document. We could suspect they have disposed of it,” he said.

Hendardi was referring to the State Secretariat’s claim that it has no knowledge of the report’s whereabouts and thus was unable to follow up the case.