September 8, 2025 | 02:23 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A coalition of civil society organizations under the Committee of Solidarity Action for Munir (KASUM) staged a protest outside the Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) office in Jakarta on Monday, September 8, 2025.
The demonstrators called on Komnas HAM to conclude its long-delayed investigation into the assassination of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, who was murdered on September 7, 2004. They also urged the commission to formally classify the case as a gross human rights violation.
The rally, held to mark the 21st anniversary of Munir’s death, was attended by dozens of students, activists, and workers. Arriving around noon, the crowd carried posters demanding justice and chanted slogans such as “Justice for the Victims” and “Solve Munir’s Case.”
Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director and Munir’s longtime friend, Usman Hamid, led the speeches. He reminded the public that 21 years is far too long to wait for justice. This protest, he noted, was the third in as many years at Komnas HAM, yet the commission has shown no meaningful progress.
“Revealing the truth should not be difficult. The Fact-Finding Team on Munir’s murder had already reported many findings. Komnas HAM is dragging its feet,” said Usman, a member of the presidentially appointed Fact-Finding Team under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Usman also paid tribute to Munir, describing him as an activist who never wavered in his fight for justice, for workers, students, police officers, and even members of the military. “In 1998, Munir was at the forefront of separating the police from the military,” he recalled.
The protesters demanded that Komnas HAM officials meet them in person, while police officers stood guard over the demonstration.
Munir was poisoned with arsenic aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004, dying midair over Romania.
Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released in 2018 after multiple sentence reductions. He later died of Covid-19 in 2020.
Despite the conviction, questions remain. Human rights activists believe Munir’s murder was systematic, involving high-ranking officials. Former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy Muchdi PR was once charged but was later acquitted.
Adding to the controversy, the official report of the Fact-Finding Team on Munir’s killing, commissioned by then-President Yudhoyono, was never made public. When activists pressed President Joko Widodo for the report in 2017, the government claimed the document had gone missing.
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