Komnas HAM Has Yet to Determine Munir's Case As A Serious Human Rights Violation, 101 Organizations Issued Open Letters

Press Release

Around 101 organizations consisting of various elements and regions made an open letter addressed to the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission to immediately determine the Munir murder case as a serious human rights violation as mandated by the Law on the Human Rights Court. This is done because there has been no action from the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to determine the murder case of Munir as a serious human rights violation to date. Almost 17 (seventeen) years have passed since Munir's death, the handling of this case still stops at the sentencing of actors in the field. Along with this, Komnas HAM also failed to show concrete and significant steps to determine the murder case against Munir as a serious human rights violation.

Law enforcement in the Munir murder case must be reviewed wider, because the facts revealed in the trial that tried field actors were the involvement of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and other state actors in planning and carrying out the murder of Munir. This shows that this case can be classified as a gross violation of human rights, because if you look at Law Number 26 of 2000 concerning the Human Rights Court in Article 9, in essence it states that gross human rights violations were committed as part of a systemic attack aimed directly at civilian population.

Hopes for the complete resolution of the Munir murder case are on the line, because Komnas HAM, which has full authority as mandated by law to investigate cases of gross human rights violations, has not even determined that the Munir murder case is a serious human rights violation. Ironically, in September 2020, various layers of civil society assisted Komnas HAM by stating legal opinions that were prepared based on various actual evidences related to this case.

However, in the process, Komnas HAM also did not convey developments in a transparent and accountable manner regarding what were the obstacles so that the determination of this case as a serious human rights violation had not found a bright spot.

By not determining the Munir murder case as a gross violation of human rights will have a major impact on the ceasing of the search for justice. In addition, it will also eliminate the disclosure of the actual facts, finally releasing the murder actors from the snares of punishment. Worse, this will actually develop into a frightening specter that cannot be avoided by human rights defenders when carrying out work to protect and promote human rights. Thus, Komnas HAM indirectly took part in perpetuating the culture of impunity because it had neglected to thoroughly investigate the murder case against Munir.

In order to maintain the mandate of Komnas HAM as the only institution that can conduct investigations into gross human rights violations, we therefore urge Komnas HAM to immediately:

1. Provide the widest possible information regarding the development of the Munir murder case and a complete explanation regarding the fact that this case has not yet been determined as a serious human rights violation;

2. To determine that the murder case against Munir has fulfilled the elements of serious human rights violations as stated in Law No. 26 of 2000.

Jakarta, August 19th, 2021

Solidarity Action Committee for Munir (KASUM)

Contact person:

1. Fatia Maulidiyanti (KontraS) : +62 819-1309-1992
2. Arif Maulana (LBH Jakarta) : +62 817-256-167
3. Gufron Mabruri (Imparsial) : +62 812-1334-0612