Clock Ticks as Indonesian Execution Spree Looms

<div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7eOTdbf1h0bzrSgFnU9y6zVjj5X2OWCyVT4RImf-v_JK8QPWaMEgHcXoMzlFSZHUeRL7hJHC9FHBAnQynEvBPBbkatMZDtSruQCR96vKOT9nY7baRlte5emMTAkjtum2nsf78x6K6bc/s1600/Joko+Widodo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Indonesia's President Joko Widodo" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX7eOTdbf1h0bzrSgFnU9y6zVjj5X2OWCyVT4RImf-v_JK8QPWaMEgHcXoMzlFSZHUeRL7hJHC9FHBAnQynEvBPBbkatMZDtSruQCR96vKOT9nY7baRlte5emMTAkjtum2nsf78x6K6bc/s400/Joko+Widodo.jpg" title="Indonesia's President Joko Widodo" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indonesia's President Joko Widodo</td></tr></tbody></table><i>Hope and Hypocrisy: Despite fighting for the freedom of hundreds of its own citizens facing the death penalty abroad, Indonesia looks set to carry out a spate of executions of foreign nationals. Can international and local activists force the populist Jokowi administration to change its course?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sixteen executions are expected to soon take place in Indonesia, and most of the people are foreigners convicted of drug crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, says Indonesia’s “tragically misguided and wrongheaded” policy could see more than 40 people executed by the end of 2017.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We are greatly concerned because the Indonesian government has made it clear that as soon as Ramadan is over, in early July, they will begin executions again,” Kine told The News Lens International.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indonesia had a de-facto moratorium on the use of the death penalty until 2013, and human rights activists blame President Joko Widodo (often referred to as Jokowi) and his "War on Drugs" for restarting capital punishment. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“What we’ve seen since Jokowi took office in late 2014, is he has made the execution of convicted drug traffickers a signature policy issue,” Kine says. “He refers to this as ‘shock therapy’ for what he perceives as an emergency facing Indonesia.”</div><b></b><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><b>Diplomatic backlash or backlash to diplomacy?</b></b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Indonesia faced intense international criticism last year after it carried out 14 executions; <a href="http://dfat.gov.au/about-us/our-people/homs/pages/australian-ambassadors-and-other-representatives.aspx" target="_blank">ambassadors left Jakarta in protest</a> and Brazil <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/diplomatic-row-heightens-as-indonesia-recalls-ambassador-from-brazil-1424574371" target="_blank">refused the credentials</a> of an incoming Indonesian ambassador.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nithin Coca, a freelance writer and social activist, says only in the case of Mary Jane Veloso – the Filipino woman who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/28/mary-jane-veloso-indonesia-execution-reprieve" target="_blank">escaped</a> execution at the eleventh hour last year – did international lobbying efforts make a “discernable impact.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I don’t think the current administration cares that much what the international perception of their policies are,” says Coca, who shares his time between the U.S. and Indonesia. “I think [international lobbying] had a reverse impact, domestically at least.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amid criticism, “especially from <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/three-excuses-for-the-bali-nine-death-penalty--and-why-theyre-all-sickeningly-wrong-20150204-135yeh.html" target="_blank">Australia</a>,” Indonesians “became more nationalistic and more pro-death penalty than they would have had there been no international outcry,” he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Further, he suggests that Indonesians are “very cognizant of hypocrisy” – Indonesians are executed in other countries with worse capital punishment records each year, but “the world doesn’t care.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There is this idea, because they are westerners [facing execution], now all of a sudden you care. But if it is an Indonesian or someone else from a developing country, you don’t really care.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kine says although there is a perception that international pressure doesn’t work, the criticism last year has “stung the Indonesian government.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The biggest blowback, and the greatest pressure that the Jokowi administration has had, has been from close bilateral partners whose citizens have been executed despite strenuous diplomatic efforts to commute those death sentences,” he says.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“After the peak of that pressure in March-April, 2015, when that last spree of executions occurred, the government paused and went silent on this death penalty issue. It has only been in recent weeks where it has suddenly reemerged.”<br /><br /><b>Nationalism and the 'War on Drugs'</b><br /><br />Using the death penalty on foreign nationals involved in drug trafficking appears to be popular among the electorate and is being used by politicians riding a wave of patriotism across the archipelago.<br /><br />Coca says there has been renewed nationalism in Indonesia under the Jokowi administration. He points to Susi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia’s minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, who has been promoting an aggressive defense of Indonesia’s maritime territory.<br /><br />“She’s incredibly popular,” Coca says. “She’s probably the most popular politician in the country right now.”<br /><br />Pudjiastuti’s confrontational rhetoric, Coca says, is “more for PR and more for show” than a sign of effective policy. Capital punishment in the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ is used similarly to portray an “image of power.”<br /><br />“The executions are not going to help actually stop the drug problem; they are really a show of force to demonstrate the government is doing something,” he says. <br /><br />Polls and surveys show a large number of Indonesians favor the death penalty, Kine says.<br /><br />“You could debate why that is the case, but the fact is that reflex pursuit of some kind of ‘justice’ through the death penalty is not based on the facts, science and international law,” he says.<br /><br />Twelve of the 14 drug offenders last executed in Indonesia were foreigners. This February, Widodo said drug abuse “tops the list” of Indonesia’s major problems.<br /><br />Coca says the statement was “ridiculous,” considering the country has challenges across electricity and infrastructure, education and literacy, and the environment, among others.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://international.thenewslens.com/article/42953" target="_blank"><b>Click here to read the full article</b></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: The News Lens, Edward White, June 28, 2016</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Joko would order cops to shoot drug dealers if the law allowed</span></b></div><br />Indonesian President Joko Wid­odo has called on police to “smash” drug dealers, and said he would order them to “shoot them on sight if existing law allowed it”.<br /><br />In language reminiscent of the hard-line position taken by The Philippines’ president-elect, Rodrigo Duterte, Jokowi (as he is known) said: “If (shooting on sight) were allowed by the law then I would have ordered the ­National Police and the BNN chief to do so, but luckily it is not.<br /><br />“This extraordinary crime has affected not only adults, but also elementary school and kindergarten-aged children,” he said in comments reported by the Jakarta Globe yesterday to mark the UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.<br /><br />Indonesia drew international criticism last year when it exec­uted 14 death-row prisoners, most of them foreigners convicted of drug offences.<br /><br />Among those put to death were Australian Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran, despite strong protests from Canberra and supporters who said the two men had amply demonstrated their rehabilitation during their imprisonment.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEC5sS0mRO3tW2VR-dUXdkaStQGD_qzcJ_aLfXYDGipU5G89LZyGDhq5hj0KtrBQkBIEIrZQfp8B1Zv7V71b43zP4MgQ8tejgAvv5ZRXSj-Wn4mL3Bf0pYpSWelP44NZ04FM_zN1_Y0KY/s1600/Cilacap+Nusakambangan+Island.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Clock Ticks as Indonesian Execution Spree Looms" border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEC5sS0mRO3tW2VR-dUXdkaStQGD_qzcJ_aLfXYDGipU5G89LZyGDhq5hj0KtrBQkBIEIrZQfp8B1Zv7V71b43zP4MgQ8tejgAvv5ZRXSj-Wn4mL3Bf0pYpSWelP44NZ04FM_zN1_Y0KY/s400/Cilacap+Nusakambangan+Island.jpg" title="Clock Ticks as Indonesian Execution Spree Looms" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clock Ticks as Indonesian Execution Spree Looms</td></tr></tbody></table>Two foreign nationals, Frenchman Serge Atlaoui, and Filipino domestic worker Mary Jane ­Veloso, were spared at the 11th hour, however, following appeals from their governments.<br /><br />The Indonesian government has flagged its intention to execute a further 18 death-row drug convicts after the Islamic holiday of Idul Fitri on July 6, as well as a further 30 next year, and has already made provision for them in the budget.<br /><br />But Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan has vowed there will be no repeat of the “soap opera” surrounding last year’s executions of convicted drug traffickers, and there would be just three days’ ­notice given before the prisoners faced the firing squad.<br /><br />About 60 prisoners of a total 152 currently on death row in ­Indonesia have been convicted for drug offences. Among them are two British citizens, Cheltenham grandmother Lindsay Sandiford and Gareth Cashmore, 36.<br /><br />Jokowi has previously ­described the drug problem as a national emergency, citing statistics suggesting up to 5.1 million people of Indonesia’s total 250 million population (2 per cent) are chronic drug abusers.<br /><br />Mr Duterte, who takes office in The Philippines on June 30, vowed to kill all drug dealers and feed their bodies to the fish in ­Manila Bay during his election campaign and has since said he will allow police to shoot to kill drug dealers.<br /><br />Philippines’ National Police spokesman Wilben Mayor last week said that since Mr Duterte’s election victory on May 9, more than 40 drug suspects had been killed, compared with 39 deaths recorded in the four months preceding the election.<br /><br />Late last week Adelaide man Damian John Berg was arrested in Manila for allegedly selling ­ecstasy in a police “buy-bust” raid.<br /><br />Source: <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/joko-would-order-cops-to-shoot-drug-dealers-if-the-law-allowed/news-story/6395eb02ae8786204122f56cc3bce311" target="_blank">The Australian</a>, Amanda Hodge, June 28, 2016<br /><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div>

Australia Brazil Drug trafficking Indonesia Joko Widodo L. Sandiford Mary J. Veloso Philippines Rodrigo Duterte Serge Atlaoui Clock Ticks as Indonesian Execution Spree Looms

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo Hope and Hypocrisy: Despite fighting for the freedom of hundreds of its own citizens facing the death ...

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Indonesia: Executions won't fix the drug problem

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqa3Fm6f2g8v7BgAICmXr63t6uKIzuE2xajbt3ER3qffYmaJaWf0zv1S89c1rK_tXofx4LcV042THb9ssH8XPMPiRiREHmtFEGK1Wb3nDopRwfet8xyojZungWP3ZhQtDdnDr9eexLwdA/s1600/Joko+Widodo+and+Angela+Merkel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Indonesian President Joko Widodo with German Chancellor Angela Merkel." border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqa3Fm6f2g8v7BgAICmXr63t6uKIzuE2xajbt3ER3qffYmaJaWf0zv1S89c1rK_tXofx4LcV042THb9ssH8XPMPiRiREHmtFEGK1Wb3nDopRwfet8xyojZungWP3ZhQtDdnDr9eexLwdA/s400/Joko+Widodo+and+Angela+Merkel.jpg" title="Indonesian President Joko Widodo with German Chancellor Angela Merkel." width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indonesian President Joko Widodo with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">For people convicted of drug crimes on Indonesia's death row, the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan has added significance this year. After moving 15 prisoners to "Execution Island" last month and announcing that their deaths by firing squad could take place at any time, the country's attorney general conceded he might postpone the killings because "well, executing [during] fasting [month] is not good, is it?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's too bad that this moral sense isn't applied year-round. Although many countries punish people for their drug addiction, only 36 have laws that prescribe the death penalty for drug-related convictions. 7, including Indonesia, regularly enforce the death penalty as a sentence for drug offences (others include China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indonesia is currently the centre of international attention for a number of reasons - 1 of which is the fact that executions represent an abrupt about face for the country, which until last year had appeared to be upholding a <i>de facto</i> moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The upcoming executions were set in motion less than a month after the country's delegation to the U.N. was booed from the gallery during a speech about the use of the death penalty to combat drug trafficking, and are just one part of a chilling series of executions planned for 2016 and 2017.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another reason for the international spotlight is the fact that Indonesia is executing foreigners - with blatant disregard for international opinion. Neither the booing at the U.N. nor direct appeals by other countries has had any impact.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2015, following intensive efforts by Brazil and the Netherlands to win clemency for 2 citizens convicted of drug offenses in Indonesia, the pair were executed by firing squad along with an Indonesian woman and 3 other foreigners (from Nigeria, Malawi and Vietnam). A few months later, 8 more people were executed. Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands temporarily recalled their ambassadors in response to the executions, but with little effect. According to Amnesty International, Jakarta imposed at least 46 new death sentences in 2015 - including 29 for drug-related crimes - up from 6 in 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The executions are partly tied to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's desire to play on the widespread belief that drug users are a menace to society - a fear inflated and dramatized in the war on drugs. Indonesia has a significant drug problem, but no reliable statistics on its size. Widodo declared a state of emergency over the country's drug use shortly after being sworn in. He cited government statistics that nearly 5 million people - or about 2 % of the population - are "affected" by drug consumption and that between 40 and 50 Indonesians die every day because of drug use.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although academics from the country's top universities questioned the government numbers - and earlier this year Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency said that it had overestimated drugs deaths by nearly 20 % - the war on drugs and use of the death penalty appears to have popular approval in Indonesia. Widodo has vowed to reject all requests for clemency for people convicted of drug-related crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capital punishment, threats and arrests are the wrong answer for Indonesia's drug problem. The people being executed in Indonesia are not the primary drivers of the illicit drug trade. Some of them are "drug mules" who were vulnerable to exploitation; others were unaware they were carrying drugs in the first place. Indonesian scholars point to data showing that drug use has not been reduced by criminalizing the behavior. Instead, such policies have fueled hepatitis C and HIV epidemics and driven people away from health services that might otherwise have helped them overcome their addiction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Executions are inconsistent with Pancasila - Indonesia's official philosophical foundation, which calls for a just and civilized humanity. They are also a violation of Indonesia's commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which says the death penalty should be imposed only for the most serious crimes and that those sentenced to it should have the right to seek a pardon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Widodo's presidential campaign - based on an anti-corruption platform, projecting a man of the people ready to support farmers, protect minority groups, and resolve past human rights abuses - attracted domestic and international support. The 1st president not plucked from political dynasties or the military, Widodo's election was seen as a significant step in Indonesia's evolution towards a free and united democratic society. This was to be the final phase in a national journey that began in 1998, when Indonesians pulled themselves out of half a century of repression, violence and instability.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet Widodo's approval ratings dropped within months of taking office. Having risen from the ranks of domestic politics, he is often criticized for lacking foreign policy experience - an area in which his predecessor was strong. A tough stance on drug use gives him a political platform for big talk on Indonesian sovereignty - and he's determined that national drug policy will not be swayed by foreign opinion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Widodo's politicization of the drug challenges faced by thousands of Indonesian families is a betrayal of his stance as a man of the people committed to protecting the people. Drug use is complex, poorly understood and heavily stigmatized - it's an issue that needs to be addressed with reason, science and in consultation with the people involved; not a punishment-oriented approach designed to advance a political and moral agenda.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indonesia's move toward democracy has often set an example for the region. It needs a public health response to its drug problem that will allow it to be a model for the rest of the world, and which is based on programs that have been proven to work. The country has taken steps in this direction, including introducing opioid substitution therapy and increasing access to clean needles, syringes and HIV treatment. Widodo should expand access to these initiatives and abandon his use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The government's decision not to kill during Ramadan gives us hope that rationality and compassion can change Indonesia's policy on drugs. The death penalty is a punishment of the past that has little place in a country looking towards the future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Source: Reuters, Commentary, June 21, 2016. Naomi Burke-Shyne is a senior program officer with the Public Health Program at the Open Society Foundations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">- Report an error, an omission:<a href="mailto:deathpenaltynews@gmail.com" target="_blank"> deathpenaltynews@gmail.com</a></span> <span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: small;"> - Follow us on <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/WebDPN/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> </b>and <b><a href="https://twitter.com/WebDPN" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b></span></div></div>

Australia Brazil Drug trafficking HIV Indonesia Joko Widodo Netherlands Ramadan Indonesia: Executions won't fix the drug problem

Indonesian President Joko Widodo with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. For people convicted of drug crimes on Indonesia's death row, the...

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