Last week, your call was joined by some important voices in the United States Congress. Representatives Jim McDermott and Mark Kirk are circulating a letter to President Yudhoyono asking him to release an official fact-finding team report completed last June, and to carefully consider its recommendations.

If you are located in the United States, please contact your Member of Congress and encourage him or her to sign on to the letter.

Supporters around the world (including the U.S.) can use a cell phone to send a text message to President Yudhoyono at +629949. The message should politely request that the president:

• Release the report of the Munir fact-finding team

• Create a new independent commission with a strong mandate

Click here to learn more about the Munir murder investigation and ongoing trial.

Sample Letter:

Dear Representative,

I would like to urge you, as my elected representative, to sign on to an important letter this week relating to Indonesia. The letter calls on Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to ensure justice in the death of Munir, a courageous human rights activist murdered one year ago. The letter, sponsored by Representatives Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), calls for the release of an official fact-finding report as an important first step, and for the careful consideration of its findings.

Munir was poisoned by arsenic on a plane to Amsterdam, where he was traveling to study international humanitarian law. It is hard to underestimate Munir's importance to the advancement of human rights in Indonesia. The young activist played an important role in Indonesia’s turbulent transition and in the reform process that has followed. Combining rare courage and skillful research, Munir helped uncover abuses of power from remote regions of East Timor to downtown Jakarta. He also helped found two respected, independent non-governmental organizations and a region-wide network of family members of those forcibly disappeared.

As noted in the letter, President Yudhoyono took an important step last December by appointing an official fact-finding team to work in conjunction with the police. The team uncovered evidence implicating senior executives at the state airline Garuda. They also found phone records linking the chief suspect (a copilot traveling on the fatal flight) and top officials at the State Intelligence Agency. However, intelligence officials refused to meet with the team, which submitted its final report to the president in June.

When the copilot’s murder trial began in August there was no mention of the important information contained in the fact-finding report, or of the possible role of intelligence officials. These omissions have raised fears that the architects of the murder may never be prosecuted, and even the case against the copilot may fall apart due to the failure to present all the relevant evidence.

I hope you will join with Munir’s family and colleagues around the world in calling for the release of the final report of the fact-finding team, as promised in the presidential decree that created the team. Making the findings and recommendations of the report public would be an important first step in securing justice for Munir.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,