INDONESIA'S SECOND BATCH EXECUTIONS TRIGGER STRONG REACTIONS OVERSEAS by Fardah

   Jakarta, April 30, 2015 (Antara)- Despite pressures and appeals from various quarters at home as well as overseas, Indonesia went ahead and executed eight drug convicts on death row on April 29, 2015.

        Of the 10 convicts who were on the initial execution list, the authorities executed eight prisoners: Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan from Australia; Martin Anderson from Ghana; Zainal Abidin from Indonesia; Rodrigo Gularte from Brazil; and Raheem Agbajeand, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise, and Okwudili Oyatanze from Nigeria.

        Indonesia decided to hold the execution of Mary Jane (MJ) Fiesta Veloso, a Filipina migrant worker, following a request from the president of the Philippines.

        "The execution of MJ has been put on hold in view of a request from the president of the Philippines," spokesman for the Attorney General's Office (AGO) Tony Tribagus Spontana stated after the executions.

        A Filipina has surrendered in her country and has claimed responsibility for trapping MJ in a human trafficking racket. "MJ will be required to give more information," Spontana noted.

        Besides MJ, the execution of a French citizen, Serge Areski Atlaoui, has also been delayed pending a judicial review filed by him at the State Administrative Court.

        In January 2015, the AGO carried out the execution of six death row convicts from Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil, and the Netherlands.

        This year so far, a total of 14 death row convicts, including 12 foreigners, involved in drug-related crimes, have been executed by Indonesian firing squads.  
   The latest executions will not be the last batch because there are some 60 more death row drug convicts awaiting execution.

        "There are approximately 60 drug convicts who have been sentenced to death but have yet to be executed," Head of the National Anti-Narcotics Agency (BNN) Anang Iskandar said during a press conference at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on April 29, 2015.

        President Joko Widodo has declared strict law enforcement to combat drug syndicates destroying the nation's youth.

        Indonesia is in a state of drug emergency as approximately 4.2 million people are estimated to be drug users. "Some 50 people die every day of drug use, while the drug menace costs the nation Rp63 trillion worth losses per year," Anang explained.

        But, Indonesia's strict policy of imposing capital punishment does not go without challenges, particularly from NGO activists and leaders overseas.

        Before the second batch of executions, Indonesia was urged by, among others, the UN Secretary-General, the Australian Government, the French Government, and Amnesty International, to show mercy and spare the convicts' lives.
   "I again respectfully call on the President of Indonesia to reconsider his refusal to grant clemency. It is not too late for a change of heart," Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop was quoted as saying by the Australian Embassy on its official website on April 26, 2015.

        Another appeal was made by Amnesty International (AI) in its open letter dated April 27 and signed by 13 AI directors from Australia, Brazil, France, India, South Korea, Mongolia, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.  
   "We urge you (President Jokowi) to grant clemency to the prisoners on death row facing imminent execution. We understand Indonesia's need to punish and deter criminal acts. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments," they said in the letter to the Indonesian head of state.

        UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a press statement expressed his deep regret over executions despite numerous calls in the country and abroad for a reprieve, the UN News Center reported.

        Urging the Indonesian Government to exercise its authority and commute all death sentences, he reaffirmed his belief that the death penalty has no place in the 21st century.

        Ban noted that the growing majority of the international community shared his conviction, demonstrating as much in a vote in the UN General Assembly in December 2014, when a record 117 states voted in favor of a moratorium on the death penalty.

        He recalled that under international law, if the death penalty is to be used at all, it should only be imposed for the most serious crimes, namely intentional killing, and only with appropriate safeguards.

        Drug-related offenses generally are not considered under the category of "most serious crimes." The statement concluded with Ban urging all countries where the death penalty is still in place to join in the movement and declare a moratorium on capital punishment with a view toward abolition.

        Echoing that sentiment, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Rupert Coleville, also issued a statement underscoring that the High Commissioner, the Secretary-General, and other key UN entities had urged Indonesia time and time again not to proceed with these executions.

        "We appeal once again most strenuously to Indonesia to reinstate its moratorium on the death penalty," he said, noting: "Indonesia appeals for clemency when its own nationals face execution in other countries, so it is incomprehensible why it absolutely refuses to grant clemency for lesser crimes within its own territory."
       In Australia, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop issued a joint press statement expressing deep regret over the execution of two Australian nationals, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

        "The Government had hoped that Indonesia would show mercy to these young men, who have worked hard since their arrests to rehabilitate themselves and improve the lives of other prisoners," they said in the statement.

        They committed a serious crime, but lengthy prison terms would have been an appropriate punishment, they added.

        Australia respects Indonesia's sovereignty, but deeply regrets that Indonesia could not extend the mercy it so often seeks for its own citizens, they remarked.

        "We will withdraw our Ambassador for consultations once the men's bodies have been returned to the families of Chan and Sukumaran," they warned, adding that ministerial visits will remain suspended.

        Abbott was even quoted as saying by Australian media ABC that these executions are both cruel and unnecessary.

        Amnesty International has also urged Indonesia to scrap any plan to carry out further executions.

        "President Joko Widodo should immediately abandon plans to carry out further executions and impose a moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards its abolition," remarked Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's Research Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, in a statement on April 29, 2015.

        Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to carry out the execution, the statement said, adding that so far, 140 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

        In Paris, the French foreign ministry's spokesman, Romain Nadal, observed that the French authorities were "fully mobilized to help Serge Atlaoui, whose situation remains very worrying."
   The Guardian.com reported that the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, told a cabinet meeting: "Full diplomatic efforts continue on this issue."
   Serge Atlaoui, 51, was originally among the group to be executed but was granted a temporary reprieve after Indonesia agreed to allow a legal appeal to run its course. He remains on death row.

        Atlaoui is a welder from eastern France who first travelled to Indonesia in 2005 and was later arrested in a police swoop on an ecstasy factory, but has always protested his innocence.

        The father-of-three, whose wife, a cleaner, was expecting their fourth child, has said that in 2005 he was seeking solutions to pay off financial debts.

        He regularly traveled abroad for welding work and in the Netherlands he learned of a recruiter offering a job in a Jakarta suburb paying £1,440 a week, off the books, in what Atlaoui said he was told was an acrylics factory.

        The French President, François Hollande, has warned that Indonesia will face diplomatic consequences if it executes Atlaoui. ***2***
((T.F001/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 30-04-2015 23:06:13