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By Jason Tedjasukmana
Posted Monday, October 3, 2005; 21:00 HKT
For Suciwati Munir, confronting her husband's alleged killer is not nearly as painful as confronting the truth: that a culture of impunity remains deeply embedded in Indonesian society. Every week since early August, Suciwati has turned up at the trial of the man accused of murdering her husband, the late Munir Said Thalib, the country's leading human rights campaigner and a relentless critic of the Indonesian military. A year has passed since Munir was poisoned on a Garuda Airlines flight to the Netherlands, and many Indonesians believe that the man in the dock—pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto—is a fall guy for what Suciwati calls "untouchable forces." "This case is not just about Munir," she says. "It's about the human rights situation in this country."
It was Suciwati's persistence that forced the Indonesian authorities to launch an independent inquiry into her husband's death. She held press conferences to call the government to account, and lobbied officials in Washington and European capitals to put pressure on Jakarta. A former labor activist from East Java, Suciwati has formed an organization dedicated to the families of victims whose cases have yet to be solved or to be taken seriously by the authorities—like the fatal shootings of four university students in 1998, which sparked public outrage and helped bring down then-strongman Suharto. "My children are still my priority," says Suciwati, a 37-year-old mother of two, "but we cannot tire in our search for justice."
In the courtroom, with the accused—who has pleaded not guilty—looking on, Suciwati continues her reproach of the government and what she calls the "political assassination" of Munir. She is emotional yet respectful of the process, though few expect the trial to reveal the full truth behind her husband's death. (In June, the independent inquiry determined that 34 phone calls had taken place between Pollycarpus and a number at Indonesia's intelligence agency before and after Munir was killed.) Suciwati vows to fight on, despite receiving anonymous threats, including a package containing a chicken carcass and a letter warning her not to connect the death of her husband to the military. "Munir used to tell us that his courage was nothing compared to his wife's," says Smita Notosusanto, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Indonesia. "Now we realize what he meant."
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