T

he government’s failure to bring to justice all parties responsible for the killing of prominent human rights activist Munir Said Thalib raises serious concerns about Indonesia’s willingness to resolve the case and to combat persistent impunity in the country, a prominent international human rights group has said.

London-based Amnesty International recalled President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s statement in 2004, in which he said the resolution of Munir’s murder would be a “test of our history”. “Eight years after Munir’s death, the Indonesian authorities — including the President — are failing in that test,” Amnesty said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Munir was allegedly poisoned with arsenic on board a Garuda Indonesia plane flying from Jakarta to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004. His remains were buried in Sisir cemetery in Batu, East Java.

A former Garuda Indonesia pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto, was been sentenced to 20 years in jail in connection to the case, although observers allege he was not the main actor behind the murder.

According to the statement, Amnesty International Directors in 11 countries and territories — Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States — have written to Indonesian government representatives in their countries, calling on the National Police chief and attorney general to establish a new, independent investigation into Munir’s murder and to bring perpetrators at all levels to justice in accordance with international human rights standards.

“They further called on the Indonesian authorities to immediately make public a 2005 fact-finding report as a key step toward establishing the truth about Munir’s killing,” Amnesty said.