The long struggle to find out who killed Indonesia’s leading human rights activist Munir Thalib received a major boost when Indonesia’s Supreme Court convicted Polycarpus Priyanto, an ex-pilot for national airline Garuda, of poisoning Munir with arsenic during an international flight.
But Indonesian police need to get to the bottom of this conspiracy once and for all and find out who within the intelligence community ordered his killing and how far up the chain of command the order originated. I am glad that the police have re-opened the case and will question intelligence agents for the first time about their involvement in the murder.
Munir was a remarkable, passionate and courageous activist who took the numerous threats he received in his stride.
He once said:
Human rights in the sense of human solidarity has created a new universal and equal language going beyond racial, gender, ethnic or religious boundaries. That is why we consider it a doorway to dialogue for people of all socioeconomic groups and all ideologies.
May the struggle for justice in Indonesia that inspired him – and which he, in turn, inspired – live on! May a thousand more Munirs emerge to take his place.
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