Jakarta Globe, Apr 03, 2015
A portrait of slain human rights activist Munir Said Thalib is seen at an event to commemorate 10th anniversary of his death, in Jakarta on Sept. 7, 2014. (Antara Photo/Yudhi Mahatma) |
Jakarta. A
bicycle path is set to be officially inaugurated in The Hague to commemorate
the prominent Indonesian human rights activist Munir Said Thalib, who was
murdered in 2004 on his way to the Netherlands.
Suciwati,
Munir’s widow, was quoted as saying by Tempo.co on Friday that she would attend
a ceremony on April 11, while local media in the Netherlands reported that a
ceremony to unveil the Munirpad, or Munir Path, would be held on April 14.
A
researcher at the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence
(Kontras), Indria Fernida, told the Indonesian news portal that the Dutch
government had been expressing its intention to use Munir’s name for a street
in The Hague since 2011.
Ultimately,
the city administration of The Hague — seat of the Dutch government — decided
in October last year to name a 500-meter long bike path after the Indonesian
activist.
The path
runs between two avenues, the Martin Luther Kinglaan and the Architect
Berlagelaan, in an area of the city with streets named after such prominent
historical figures as Dag Hammarskjold, Albert Schweitzer, Salvador Allende and
Mahatma Gandhi.
Munir, who
founded Kontras, died on Sept. 7, 2004, at the age of 39 during a trip from
Jakarta to Amsterdam. He was on his way to join a master’s program in the
Netherlands, but was poisoned with arsenic during a layover in Singapore.
He was the
executive director of Imparsial, another human rights group, at the time of his
death and had been an outspoken critic of members of the Indonesian security
forces he accused of involvement in a variety of criminal enterprises.
Former
Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto was convicted of the
murder and served eight years of a 14-year sentence before being released on
parole late last year.
Pointing to
the apparent lack of a motive for the murder, activists say Pollycarpus is
highly unlikely to have acted of his own accord and that the mastermind behind
the assassination remains at large.
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