Indonesia widens use of death penalty

In Indonesia, the death penalty is carried out by firing squad.

When the time comes, after any final wishes have been granted, the prisoner is taken to a field to stand in front of 12 gunmen. A single shot is fired from each rifle, carefully aimed at the chest. If that does not kill the prisoner, the commander will fire a point-blank shot to the head.

This is how it went for Ahmad Suradji, 57, who was executed late Thursday night for the murder of 42 women a decade ago. No family or witnesses were allowed. This was how it also went for 2 Nigerians executed June 26 on drug trafficking charges.

Indonesia resumed executing prisoners in June after a 14-month hiatus, during which time the Constitutional Court here upheld the death penalty for drug offenders. Indonesia has some of the strictest penalties for drug crimes in the world.

Though more than half of the prisoners on death row are there for drug-related charges, Samuel Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, the Nigerian nationals executed in June, were the 1st drug offenders put to death in 4 years.

"Indonesia is not typically an enthusiastic executioner," said Kathryn Duff from Amnesty International.

The recent executions, however, coupled with statements from the attorney general, indicate that might be changing.

The Nigerians were put to death on the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as a powerful message to those trafficking drugs through Indonesia. That same day, in another warning, the attorney general, Hendarman Supandji, said other death row inmates on drug charges could expect their executions to be accelerated.

A.H. Ritonga, a deputy attorney general, said this week that Supandji's comment did not necessarily mean all 58 prisoners on death row for drug-related crimes would be executed soon. Many of them, he said, could still file final appeals or plea for clemency.

"Death row inmates will only be executed according to the law, after their appeals are exhausted and their clemency bids rejected," Ritonga said. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, has said publicly he would not pardon drug offenders.

Indonesia's intention to execute greater numbers of prisoners bucks a worldwide trend toward abolishing the death penalty. The United Nations in 2007 passed a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty.

Amnesty International has appealed for the lives of the prisoners set to be executed here soon, noting that there "is no clear evidence that the death penalty deters crime any more effectively than other forms of punishment."

Indonesia has 112 felons now on death row, seven of whom have exhausted all their appeals and are expected to be executed soon, including the three terrorists sentenced to death for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Eighteen other prisoners, in a last-ditch effort to save their lives, are appealing to the president for clemency.

Indonesia is still a long way from ranking among top executing countries. In 2007, China executed 470 or more, Iran about 320, Saudi Arabia more than 140 and Pakistan about 135. The United States is ranked fifth with 42 executions carried out in 2007, according to Amnesty International.

Yudhoyono, however, has been a staunch supporter of the death penalty since taking office, rarely granting clemency. He went ahead with the execution of three Christian militants in 2004, despite concerns from international human rights groups that not all the evidence had been presented during their trial.

Yudhoyono has also so far not bowed to pressure from Australia, which has a long tradition of fighting against the death penalty worldwide, to commute the death sentence of 3 Australians imprisoned in Bali for smuggling heroin.

Abuses in East Timor cited

A truth and friendship commission is set to report its findings that Indonesia carried out crimes against humanity during East Timor's successful bid for independence in 1999 and should apologize to the country for the murders, torture and other abuses that occurred, The Associated Press reported from Dili, East Timor, on Friday.

The bilateral team, set up in 2005 to investigate the events, in which a previous UN report said that at least 1,000 people died, said in a 300-page report obtained by The AP that Indonesian soldiers, the police and the civil authorities engaged in an "organized campaign of violence" against supporters of independence. The commission concluded that Indonesia "bears institutional responsibility" and should express
appropriate remorse.

The Commission of Truth and Friendship was scheduled to formally present the report to President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Jos Ramos-Horta of East Timor for their approval on Monday.

The harshest criticism was reserved for Indonesia, but the inquiry said East Timor should also apologize for abuses carried out by pro-independence militia, especially illegal detentions.

Source: International Herald Tribune