We Have Tired of Violence: A True Story of Murder, Memory, and the Fight for Justice in Indonesia

Human rights researcher Easton debuts with a chilling account of the 2004 assassination of Indonesian attorney Munir Said Thalib. Munir, who was investigating human rights abuses carried out during the Suharto presidency, was poisoned while on a flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. Though the Indonesian foreign minister announced that the autopsy had “revealed nothing unusual,” the Dutch coroner’s report concluded that Munir had died from a massive ingestion of arsenic. Eventually, a pilot traveling on the flight as a passenger was convicted of slipping the toxin into Munir’s juice. Drawing on evidence gathered by Munir’s family, Easton makes a persuasive case that the pilot was acting on orders from Indonesia’s intelligence agency, whose chief refused to cooperate with an official inquiry. To date, no one from the intelligence agency has been held accountable for Munir’s death. Easton lucidly unravels the complex history behind the murder and shines a well-deserved spotlight on and how tirelessly Munir’s wife and friends have worked to expose the truth. This harrowing account unearths the insidious legacy of authoritarian regimes. (May)