Garuda Airlines executive director Indra Setiawan is clearly a man under intense pressure. Since the arsenic poisoning of a high-profile passenger on one of his airplanes in September, the media just haven't let up. And Garuda's reputation is being well and truly dragged through the mud.

REPORTER (Translation): You're with Garuda, right?

INDRA SETIAWAN, GARUDA AIRLINES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (Translation): No comment. I've been asked not to say anything.

REPORTER (Translation): But it's a big issue.

His attempts to avoid scrutiny are increasingly irrelevant. Evidence is mounting that employees of Indonesia's national carrier helped organise or at the very least, are attempting to cover up their involvement in a political assassination. The investigation has rocked Indonesia.

REPORTER (Translation): A public figure was killed on your plane?

INDRA SETIAWAN (Translation): Yes, yes, yes. I really regret that.

REPORTER (Translation): It seems clear to us that Garuda was involved.

INDRA SETIAWAN (Translation): That's the way you see it.

In recent weeks suspicion has focused not only on the airline but also on Indonesia's feared security and intelligence establishment. The victim from Garuda Flight 974 is returned home.
Munir Said Thalib was Indonesia's bravest and hardest working human rights campaigner. He led a tireless crusade against state-sponsored thuggery and militarism. His colleagues in human rights circles are feeling the loss terribly.

SMITA NOTOSUSANTO (Translation): We have not all recovered from it. You know the movement, which is completely in disarray now. He's the glue, he's the bridge. We have no willingness and no capacity to, you know... so I don't know. I am trying not to think about it because I am afraid that I might just quit.

Munir began his rise to prominence as a legal aid lawyer in East Java in the early 1990s. He met his wife Suciwati around this time. She was a union leader at the local factory.

SUCIWATI, MUNIR’S WIFE (Translation): Because our wages are low, we want to go on strike.

After leading a strike she was sacked and Munir took up her case. For Suciwati, it was love at first sight.

SUCIWATI (Translation): I really, how do you say it? I really liked him. And I thought, Wow! Things I never found in other men, I found in him. To tell the truth....there were many reasons why we got on so well. So in the end... I fell in love with him.

It was 1996 and Suharto's military dictatorship was still strong and ruthless. From the very beginning Suciwati says she worried about his safety.

SUCIWATI (Translation): I knew the risks he took when... I began to think about it when he... when he took me to a discussion group. I even thought that among the audience, there might be a soldier or a spy. I thought they might shoot him. Because he was being so critical during that discussion.

REPORTER: It was just a feeling?

SUCIWATI (Translation): Yes, I told him and he just laughed. That's what he was like.

Rachland Nasidik heads one of the human rights groups founded by Munir. He now dedicates all his time to helping solve the murder of his mentor.

REPORTER: You must be a brave man, stepping into the shoes of Munir, to lead the organisation he formed with his death still fresh in your mind?

RACHLAND NASIDIK: My destiny was written by Munir's. What I know is that he was my good friend and he was murdered, he was a world-class human rights defender. He did many noble things for his country. So I don't have any reason at all you know. I would be very ashamed to see my face in the mirror, if I say no.

September 6, 2004 - Munir says farewell to his family and friends in Jakarta before boarding Garuda Flight 974 to Holland. After postponing his departure several times Munir was finally heading off to do a Masters degree in humanitarian law. His colleagues were sad to see him go but proud and happy for him at the same time.
This home video was taken at a farewell party three days before Munir left.

MUNIR SAID THALIB (Translation): While I'm away please don't contact me about difficult problems. If you come to Holland I won't show you around. I only want to see books and libraries. It's a while since I studied. I was never good at school I was always dumb. All I did was fight, from kindy to when I finished uni. But this time I am serious. This year I'll try to be serious.

After saying his farewells at Jakarta airport Munir went to the Garuda check-in counter.

SUCIWATI (Translation): When he chose to fly Garuda, I asked "Why are you flying Garuda?" He said "I'm not a false patriot. I know that if I fly Garuda, the money and so on will come back into the country and that's important. That was Munir.

At the check-in counter he bumped into a pilot he knew, who offered to get him upgraded to business class. It's difficult to verify any details of the pre-boarding period. 58 of 60 CCTV cameras in the airport were not working at the time, and the two that were working were either switched off or the footage has been erased.
As Munir boarded, the pilot came through with his promise and generously offered his own seat in business class. He then moved into premium class. Munir would surely have been grateful. After all, it was going to be a long flight.

FLIGHT ATTENDENT: Some champagne, orange juice?

When offered a welcome drink Munir opted for the orange juice. For dinner he chose fried noodles. He then sat back and read the paper and in just under an hour he disembarked at Changi Airport in Singapore. He had 45 minutes in transit.

MRS DRUPADI: When I joined the plane in Singapore I saw him, he looked very pale. Yes, it was like 11:30 almost midnight.

Mrs Drupadi was on the same flight to Amsterdam and saw Munir in the waiting room.

REPORTER: You noticed he looked pale at the time, not now thinking back?

MRS DRUPADI: He looked pale, but I said to myself "OK, he is an activist, maybe he just finished having a meeting just before he left. You know these activists - maybe he was tired.” Actually I was going to approach him at the time, but he was so busy talking with these two persons, so I didn't dare to interrupt them.

Munir probably looked pale because his stomach was just beginning to digest a deadly dose of arsenic. He reboarded the plane alone and went back to his economy-class seat. Not long after take-off Munir was fighting fits of diarrhoea and vomiting. As they flew over Madras a hostess woke a doctor and asked him to check on the very sick passenger. The doctor gave him medicine for dehydration and two injections. But with enough arsenic in his stomach to kill two men, Munir's condition rapidly deteriorated. He spent his last waking hours shuffling to and from the bathroom. Three hours from Amsterdam over Hungarian airspace, a hostess asked the doctor to check on Munir again. His body was cold and stiff. When they landed the body was removed, but Mrs Drupadi had no idea that Munir had died.

REPORTER: There was no sign from the stewardesses that there was any problem?

MRS DRUPADI: No, I mean they are very calm, I was amazed actually, they are very good at keeping it a secret.

But it wasn't secret for long. In Jakarta, the news spread like wildfire. Munir's human rights colleagues were sent into a spin.

MAN (Translation): But the news of his death has been confirmed. We don't know if it was from natural causes or not.

MAN 2 (Translation): The military will be happy about this.

In no time, the news reached the then presidential candidate, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. A former general in the Indonesian military, or TNI, he broke into his campaign speech to announce the death.

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO (Translation): We all knew Munir. He was my friend. He was critical of the TNI, critical of those in power, but he was my friend. Let us now have a minute's silence.

In the hush, many here would have been immediately suspicious about Munir's death. He had many enemies, particularly in military and intelligence circles, whose impunity he had been challenging for years.
General Muchdi, for example, the former deputy intelligence chief under General Hendropriyono, is known to have hated Munir, who exposed his role in kidnapping and disappearing student activists in 1998. Munir never let up. He organised this demonstration just two weeks before he was to leave for Holland.
True to form, the fearless activist lashed out at Indonesia's generals, many of whom would have been glad to see him dead.

MUNIR (Translation): They've seized power, they carry guns, they kill people and hide behind those in power. Should we let these cowards keep acting tough? No. They're only tough when they are in uniform. But deep down, they are scum. They are irresponsible and they'll pay.

It was no surprise to anyone when, a week after his death, Munir's widow Suciwati, received this package at her home. It contained a putrefied chicken. Another dead chicken made its way to Munir's human rights worker colleagues. The message inside both packages was identical, and read - "Warning! Do not blame the TNI for Munir's death, or you will end up like this."
For more than six months, Suciwati has zipped around Jakarta from meeting to meeting, determined to get to the bottom of her husband's murder. She was responsible for the first real breakthrough in the investigation, pointing not to the military, but to Garuda itself. It came when she remembered receiving a strange phone call before her husband's departure. A man calling himself Polly, who said he was from Garuda, wanted to know when Munir was leaving. He would later become a key figure in the murder investigation.

SUCIWATI (Translation): It sounded like he had known my husband for a long time. "When's Munir leaving? We're travelling together," he said "On Monday," I told him. I forget which day he rang. He said, "Oh, right, thanks." After I'd hung up, and this was just a feeling, I wondered why I'd told that to someone I felt bad about it. I told him, I told Munir there'd been a call from Polly at Garuda. No, I said, from Polly. He asked, "Polly who?" He said he was Polly from Garuda. And then when he...Munir said, "Oh, him." He said, "That guy's weird. He acts like he is a mate." I felt, I felt even worse. I told him that. He said, "It's OK, don't be silly." We forgot about it. I forgot about it.

But after Munir's death she couldn't forget about it and requested a meeting with Garuda. After being put off for weeks, she finally met with the airline's executive director, Indra Setiawan.

SUCIWATI (Translation): I asked Mr Indra if there was someone called Polly at Garuda and immediately he answered that there was. Polly, his name is Pollycarpus, the first time I heard the name Pollycarpus it was from Mr Indra.

Suciwati had discovered that Pollycarpus was a pilot. He flew airbuses around Indonesia and to Australia. Along with other human rights activists, Suciwati formed the Committee for Solidarity with Munir to conduct their own investigation. They began by examining the last calls made to Munir's mobile phone, and found several came from a number belonging to the pilot Pollycarpus.


MAN (Translation): He was at Cengkareng, Jakarta international airport. He was making sure he left, then as he was leaving, Polly rang again to make sure.

November 12, national police headquarters. After more than a month of lobbying Suciwati is finally allowed to see a copy of the Dutch autopsy conducted into her husband's murder.

SUCIWATI (Translation): They told me, and even though I had suspected it, I was shocked they'd done that to my husband.

After reading the autopsy Suciwati emerged to find the local media waiting for her. An hour later Suciwati held a press conference. She informed Indonesia that her husband had been poisoned.

SUCIWATI (Translation): The results of the toxicological analysis showed an unnatural and fatal level of arsenic. Please don't ask me how I am feeling and more important than that, when I knew my husband had been... All I ask is the case be thoroughly investigated.

Over the days that followed, Munir's colleagues met regularly to discuss their investigation. As they delved deeper, they were tipped off about a possible link between Pollycarpus and the national intelligence agency BIN, whose headquarters are in Kalibata, Jakarta.

KASUM, 9th December (Translation): From information they have received they know that Pollycarpus is from Kalibata, and also that he has been paid by the military for a long time, that kind of stuff.

NEWSREADER (Translation): Pollycarpus the pilot who was with Munir during the flight to Singapore and has been questioned by police along with other witnesses.

In an interview with Indonesian television conducted at the time, the off-duty Garuda pilot Pollycarpus explained that offering his business-class seat to Munir was something he would do for any of his friends.

POLLYCARPUS, GARUDA PILOT (Translation): Let's say you meet me and we get acquainted. The next day we're on a bus and you want the window seat and I let you sit near the window, as a sign of respect. I get free flights. If I had to pay full fare, I wouldn't give up my business-class seat. Because I had a free seat and he was a VIP, if he wanted it, that was fine by me. I often swapped seats with Westerners too.

Dateline has discovered that Pollycarpus had previously tried to arrange favours for other human rights activists. Munir's colleague Yenny Rosa Damayanti remembers when Pollycarpus tried to befriend her.

YENNY: He called me from Sydney from many others. Now I am in Sydney and he talked about half an hour from Sydney and he called from Japan and so many other places and he said that he would provide free tickets.

Pollycarpus called Yenny every day asking for information on the anti-military campaigns she was organising before the last election.

YENNY: And one day he said he would like to meet me and set up a place, in Block M, but I had another meeting and couldn't make it, thanks God.

REPORTER: Why do you say thanks God?

YENNY: Yeah, I don't know what would have happened if I go to that meeting with him and his friends.

Also arousing suspicion among Munir's colleagues the fact that, for a civilian pilot, Pollycarpus seemed to have spent an awful lot of time in Indonesian hot spots. Over the years he has been sighted in West Papua, East Timor and Aceh.
On a trip to Aceh two years ago, I was filming embedded journalists at the beginning of a massive military operation. As it happens, Pollycarpus was staying at our hotel. He told Citra Prastuti, one of the journalists that I was filming, that he was on holiday there.

CITRA PRASTUTI, JOURNALIST: There were three of us in the same room, me and two others from 'Jakart'a Post, and approached to us and asked us questions - Where are you from? He asked questions, just ordinary questions of course, but we got suspicious and didn't want to answer more because we were afraid that he was a spy or something, because he was so weird.

REPORTER: So you were suspicious from the very beginning?

CITRA PRASTUTI: Yes, because his arm was broken, because he was from Garuda, having a holiday there. It was a weird combination so we decided not to talk too much to him.

Once Munir's colleagues put these pieces together, they were under no illusion as to the complexity of their task and the dangers they faced.

KASUM 6th December (Translation): If we communicate by mobile let's keep it neutral. If it's sensitive don't say it! Especially SMS. If it's about Pollycarpus then don't use mobiles. If we want to meet that's fine. But if you want to talk about Pollycarpus don't use a mobile. Let's not be naive, we're dealing with criminals.

On 22 November Munir's colleagues took the case to the parliamentary commission on human rights. They asked them to launch their own investigation.

COMMISSON ON HUMAN RIGHTS (Translation): Firstly I would like to introduce this unruly bunch in front of us. This will be a test case for us. Are we capable... of enforcing the law and upholding justice and solving the cruel and callous murder of our friend Munir. It won’t be easy even though it happened on a Garuda flight. We've met with the director of Garuda, with Garuda pilots, Garuda flight attendants, and there's still more to do.

The first real evidence of a conspiracy involving Garuda came from Pollycarpus's lawyer, Suhardi Somomuljono. He accused the airline of scapegoating his client.

SUHARDI SOMOMULJONO, LAWYER (Translation): Well he feels as if he's being sacrificed, it was the director of Garuda who sent him to Singapore.

Last month Suhardi made public three extraordinary letters Garuda had written which supposedly explained why the off-duty pilot was on Flight 974. In fact the letters only unravelled his client's alibi, and pointed the finger of suspicion at Garuda's senior management.
The first letter was dated August 11, three weeks before Munir's murder and appointed Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto as an aviation security officer. Unusually for such a letter, it was signed by the executive director himself, Indra Setiawan, bypassing three levels of management.

RACHLAND NASIDIK: So it's a super letter, you know, a super letter...

REPORTER: From who to who?

RACHLAND: ..from executive director to a pilot, as if this pilot is directly under his supervision. This is very strange.

The second letter was critical. Signed by the vice-president of corporate security, it authorised Pollycarpus to travel on any flight he wanted in order to carry out his duties as an aviation security officer. This letter was dated two days before Munir's departure. Closer inspection revealed the letter had in fact been written 10 days after Munir's death and then backdated. It seemed clear to Rachland Nasidik that Garuda had something to hide.

RACHLAND NASIDIK: So we asked the police to really check this letter, so the police come to Garuda office and they seized the log book, and they have found that letter was written on 15 September, signed on 17 September... but made to look as if it was signed or issued on 4 September.

The third letter authorised Pollycarpus to be on Munir's flight to Singapore, the last flight of the day. Ostensibly, he was on assignment from Garuda head office, but he didn't have much time to complete the task. Pollycarpus returned to Jakarta on the first flight the next morning. The investigation team believes all three letters are highly suspicious.

RACHLAND NASIDIK: To cover up, yes, to cover up. But I would say that not all of the members of the board of directors are involved in this case. I dare to say specifically two names. The Garuda executive director and the vice-president of corporate security.

Rachland along with several of Munir's colleagues, also sits on the official, government-appointed fact-finding team - the TPF. At the end of February, it held a closed-door meeting with Garuda directors to ask them about the three letters. When the two-hour meeting ended, and a press conference is called it is clear that things are getting much worse for Garuda's management. The deputy chief of the team is Asmara Nababan.

ASMARA NABABAN (Translation): The first possibility - one that the management of Garuda is so unprofessional that a person can be murdered on one of their planes, and the second possibility is that Garuda is covering up information about a heinous crime.

With Indonesia's national airline now under suspicion, it was clear the fact-finding team was coming up against some very powerful forces. They went to see Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, now President. The head of the team, Marsudi Hanafi of the Indonesian police, asked for the President's backing in the difficult times ahead, and got it.

MARSUDI HANAFI (Translation): The President fully supports our efforts to solve this case, and he has ordered all institutions to co-operate fully with the investigation into Munir’s death.

Then the first public acknowledgement that a conspiracy was afoot.

MARSUDI HANAFI (Translation): The President after two meetings with the fact-finding team of Garuda, there is strong evidence that the death of Munir was the result of a conspiracy.

Major-General Syamsir Siregar, the new head of Indonesia's intelligence agency BIN, was in the background watching the proceedings. With allegations surfacing that Pollycarpus was a BIN agent, he knows the fact-finding team will eventually turn its attention in his direction. Later that day, the entire crew of Flight 974 were called in to testify in a closed meeting at the parliamentary committee on human rights.
It was Pollycarpus's first public appearance but he wasn't saying anything to reporters. Last to arrive was the embattled executive director Indra Setiawan.

REPORTER: How are you, sir?

INDRA SETIAWAN: Hi. Fine, thank you.

REPORTER: Looking forward to this?

INDRA SETIAWAN: As usual.

After enduring a marathon 5-hour closed-door meeting, Indra Setiawan faced another hour's grilling by the press. The hot issue was still the backdated letter, authorising Pollycarpus to travel to Singapore, which he tried to explain was an innocent mistake.

INDRA SETIWAN (Translation): There was an administrative error, but the error occurred after the incident on the 6th, this was on the 6th, the flight had left. There was an error in administration.

Off to the side, the man who signed the letter, vice-president of corporate security Ramelgia Anwar, was getting off lightly.

REPORTER: But why did you backdate the letter?

RAMELGIA ANWAR: I have answered to the investigator, that's my answer.

REPORTER: But I am asking you, sir. Why can't you answer me? This is a serious matter.

RAMELGIA ANWAR: You can ask the investigator, I mean the police.

REPORTER: What was Pollycarpus's job in Singapore? I am asking you. You signed the letter. Why did Pollycarpus go to Singapore? You know, so why can't you tell me?

RAMELGIA ANWAR: I have answered to the investigator because the investigation is still in process.

REPORTER: Who killed Munir?

RAMELGIA ANWAR: I don't know.

REPORTER: Did Garuda have something to do with his death?

RAMELGIA ANWAR: No, no, no comment.

Despite having endured six hours of interrogation, I still had my own questions for the executive director - the man who personally appointed Pollycarpus as an aviation security officer.

REPORTER: But what was his specific purpose to go to Singapore?

INDRA SETIAWAN: You ask Mr Ramel.

REPORTER: I did before and he told me to ask you. It's a good question because he went on the last flight and he returned on the first flight the next morning. All the offices were closed, when did he have time to carry out his job?

INDRA SETIAWAN: No, no, no. That's why because... That is why I am not happy because he was only there for several hours just check some mechanics in Singapore. I am not happy.

REPORTER: But you are not happy, whether you are happy or not is not the question. What was he doing there?

INDRA SETIAWAN: He is doing according to his report.

REPORTER: Millions of people fly from Australia to Bali every year, I mean, should they be feeling comfortable drinking orange juice and eating fried noodles on your aeroplanes?

INDRA SETIAWAN: I have no comment.

Not long after his appearance in parliament, Indra Setiawan was sacked, along with Garuda's entire board of directors. The government said the move was necessary to improve the airline's performance and was unrelated to allegations of Garuda's involvement in Munir's murder. It wasn't until the next day that the parliamentarians got around to questioning Pollycarpus.

PARLIAMENT (Translation): Only Pollycarpus Budiharto Priyanto, will be present. Everyone else please leave including journalists.

They wanted to hear, among other things, how Pollycarpus had first heard about Munir's death. So did I, so along with some other reporters, I sneaked back inside.
Incredibly, although Munir's death was a huge news story in Indonesia, Pollycarpus said it was three days before he even heard about it.

POLLYCARPUS (Translation): It was on the radio sir. Yes, I was out with the wife and heard someone had died on a Garuda flight.

Then, without a flinch, he changed his story, saying he first heard the news from a colleague at Garuda.

POLLYCARPUS (Translation): I’ve just remembered, I was at Cengkareng and there was a Garuda flight attendant, I forget her name. There are so many hostesses sir.

It wasn't long before the parliamentarians had heard enough. They decided Pollycarpus should be detained, not only because he is the prime suspect, but because they were worried about his safety. Only a few days prior, he'd been hit by a minibus.

TRIMEDYA (Translation): He says he had an accident but we believe it was an attempt to kill him.

REPORTER (Translation): Who would want to kill him?

TRIMEDYA (Translation): The one behind all this.

POLLYCARPUS (Translation): They say that they were afraid that I’ll be threatened and that I will be safer in police custody. But I don’t feel unsafe.

REPORTER (Translation): But yesterday they tried to kill you?

POLLYCARPUS (Translation): No, no, no.

Three days after Garuda's executive director was sacked, Pollycarpus was finally arrested on charges of facilitating the murder of Munir and forging documents linked to the case. But investigators know that the real villains are yet to be uncovered. Whoever they are, they must have had a motive for killing Munir, and the ability to use Indonesia's national airline to achieve their goal.

RACHLAN: I believe Munir was killed by intelligence operation. I believe Munir was a target of an intelligence operation. I believe that. I don't have the proof, no, you know. But I believe, learning from past experiences, Munir was the target of an intelligence operation, because there is no other institution who could have very strong and wide access and network.
There is no institution who could place someone in a company, in Garuda, to be sure, in any other departments except an intelligence body. The military cannot do that.

Munir's death has led to suspicion that two other high-profile Indonesians may also have been targeted. Mohammed Yamin, a police brigadier general, and attorney-general Baharrudin Lopa were both investigation corruption at the highest level. Yamin died last year, several hours after a Garuda flight to Bali. Lopa died in 2001, eight days after a Garuda flight to Saudi Arabia. Autopsies were never performed.
If and when Munir's killers are found, there is bound to be renewed interest in investigating these cases.

RACHLAN: So Baharuddin Lopa was also a very important person. He was very courageous you know, to fight corruption. But suddenly he died.

Before he was hounded by the press, Indra Setiawan told Dutch reporter Step Vaessens that he could do nothing to stop the state intelligence agency, BIN, from using his airline.

STEP VAESSENS, REPORTER (Translation): Would you agree to an intelligence agent working at Garuda?

INDRA SETIAWAN (Translation): This goes back to the government as the chief shareholder. The country owns the shares so if they need to place a person there then we are management, we are not the owner.

Last week, the fact-finding team alleged that two members of the State Intelligence Agency were behind the conspiracy to kill Munir. Their identities are widely known to journalists but, for legal reasons, they have not yet been publicly named.
Suciwati and her daughter Difa are flying to Surabaya in East Java to visit Munir's family. It will be her only opportunity to see them before heading off to Geneva to testify at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
On this Garuda flight, wherever she looks, she is reminded of her husband's murder. The in-flight magazine features a message from Indra Setiawan, and the front page of the newspaper reads, "Pollycarpus ordered to kill Munir". Difa is too young to understand why her mum doesn't want her to eat the airline food. When she returns from her speaking tour of Europe, Suciwati plans to sue Garuda for not protecting her husband.
But that's later. Today is a special occasion, a chance to be close to Munir once more.

DIFA (Translation): Where are we going, Mum?

SUCIWATI (Translation): We are going to Daddy's grave. Daddy's sleeping place.

Indonesia's President has promised Suciwati that Munir's killers will be found. If this happens, it will be a first for Indonesia, where no case of this kind has ever been solved.

SUCIWATI (Translation): The puppet-masters, the brains behind these cases always walk free. They should be arrested but they go free. That’s why the struggle will be a long one and I know there are times when we are discouraged, but I mustn’t stop. We have to be hopeful and we have to believe that the current government has good intentions.

Unfortunately the person best qualified to see this through lies buried here.

REPORTER (Translation): When your kids are bigger what will you tell them about their father?

SUCIWATI (Translation): I will tell them the truth, that their father was a man they should be very proud of, that he was a great man. Enough.
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