Komnas HAM Wants Sept 7 as Human Rights Activists Protection Day

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Choirul Anam, the commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham), has appealed to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to set September 7 as the protection day of human rights activists in Indonesia. The date, Anam said, marked the 14th anniversary of the death of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib. 

Anam explained the murder case of Munir was a threat to all human rights activists. “Thus, it is better that Pak Jokowi mulls over this protection, one of the symbolic efforts is by naming September 7 as the day for human rights activists,” said Anam at his office on Friday. 

Munir Said Thalib died in his flight to Amsterdam from Jakarta on September 7, 2004, due to arsenic poisoning. The police named Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto as the suspect. In December 2005, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to 14 years' imprisonment. 

Read: Police Chief Will Order Bareskrim to Reopen Munir Case

The court also sentenced Garuda Indonesia president director Indra Setiawan to a year behind bars for being an accessory. However, to date, the police have yet to arrest the mastermind behind the murder.

On August 31, National Police Chief Tito Karnavian ordered Criminal Investigation Unit Chief Insp. General Arief Sulistyanto to have another look into the case, which Anam viewed as a good move that should be carried out effectively. 

Anam added the naming of September 7 as the protection day for human rights activists was the least President Jokowi could do. “It is the minimum commitment to the Munir case, so all of us will never experience what Cak Munir had gone through in this country,” Anam said.

BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI