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[h=1]BALI NINE: INDONESIA EXECUTES 8 BUT REPRIEVES MARY JANE VELOSO[/h]
Post date:
29 Apr 2015 - 9:11am
[Pic: Activists react after it was announced that the execution was delayed for death row prisoner Mary Jane Veloso, during a vigil outside Indonesian embassy in Makati, Philippines. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Reuters]
Charles Jose, spokesman for the Philippine department of foreign affairs, said:
Relatives in the family’s home town of Cabanatuan also burst out cheering, radio reports said.
Amnesty International has issued a statement on what it calls the “theatre of cruelty” played out tonight.
Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said:
AUSTRALIA TO RESPOND
The Australian Government will have no choice but to respond with some force in the wake of Indonesia's executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The Government has repeatedly said it is focused on saving the two men rather than recriminations, but there is a growing sense that Indonesia has behaved appallingly in its treatment of both the men and its relationship with Australia.
One longtime foreign hand told the ABC the Widodo government had been "crass, crude and objectionable", and that this now demanded a stern response.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has already signalled such a response.
"If these executions go ahead, and I hope they don't, we will certainly be finding ways to make our displeasure felt," Mr Abbott said in February.
So how might it react in the immediate aftermath?
The first, vital thing will be to secure the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra and its consulates in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.
While attacks on foreign embassies in Australia are uncommon, they are not without precedent.
On June 17, 1995 the French consulate in Perth was fire-bombed as tensions ran high over France's decision to resume nuclear testing on Moruroa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1992, a group of dissidents attacked the Iranian Embassy and in 2012 a similar attack saw Syria's embassy trashed.
Then the Government will turn its thoughts to a list of options.
That list is likely to include:
The response the Australian Government fears more than most in this regard is that the pipeline of asylum seekers might be reopened.
Whatever Australia does to express its anger, it will not remain in place forever.
In the end, both countries need each other and neither wants the relationship to be permanently damaged.
*Reporting by ABC Australia: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-28/bali-nine-australia-will-be-forced...
Post date:
29 Apr 2015 - 9:11am
[Pic: Activists react after it was announced that the execution was delayed for death row prisoner Mary Jane Veloso, during a vigil outside Indonesian embassy in Makati, Philippines. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Reuters]
Charles Jose, spokesman for the Philippine department of foreign affairs, said:
We are relieved that the execution of Mary Jane Veloso was not carried out tonight.
The Lord has answered our prayers.
On the street outside the Indonesian embassy in Manila, where a group of activists had been staging a vigil for Veloso, people cheered and hugged each other as news of the reprieve was announced.The Lord has answered our prayers.
Relatives in the family’s home town of Cabanatuan also burst out cheering, radio reports said.
Amnesty International has issued a statement on what it calls the “theatre of cruelty” played out tonight.
Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said:
The world has watched on as this theatre of cruelty played out, with this most tragic of endings.
It did not have to come to this. The death penalty is never the answer
Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International’s research director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said:It did not have to come to this. The death penalty is never the answer
These executions are utterly reprehensible – they were carried out with complete disregard for internationally recognised safeguards on the use of the death penalty.
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 abolition.
The death penalty is always a human rights violation, but there are a number of factors that make today’s executions even more distressing.
Some of the prisoners were reportedly not provided access to competent lawyers or interpreters during their arrest and initial trial, in violation of their right to a fair trial which is recognised under international and national law.
One of those executed today, Rodrigo Gularte, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and international law clearly prohibits the use of the death penalty against those with mental disabilities.
It’s also troubling that people convicted of drug trafficking have been executed, even though this does not meet the threshold of ‘most serious crimes’ for which the death penalty can be imposed under international law.
*Reporting by The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/apr/28/bali-nine-andrew-chan-...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 abolition.
The death penalty is always a human rights violation, but there are a number of factors that make today’s executions even more distressing.
Some of the prisoners were reportedly not provided access to competent lawyers or interpreters during their arrest and initial trial, in violation of their right to a fair trial which is recognised under international and national law.
One of those executed today, Rodrigo Gularte, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and international law clearly prohibits the use of the death penalty against those with mental disabilities.
It’s also troubling that people convicted of drug trafficking have been executed, even though this does not meet the threshold of ‘most serious crimes’ for which the death penalty can be imposed under international law.
AUSTRALIA TO RESPOND
The Australian Government will have no choice but to respond with some force in the wake of Indonesia's executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The Government has repeatedly said it is focused on saving the two men rather than recriminations, but there is a growing sense that Indonesia has behaved appallingly in its treatment of both the men and its relationship with Australia.
One longtime foreign hand told the ABC the Widodo government had been "crass, crude and objectionable", and that this now demanded a stern response.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has already signalled such a response.
"If these executions go ahead, and I hope they don't, we will certainly be finding ways to make our displeasure felt," Mr Abbott said in February.
So how might it react in the immediate aftermath?
The first, vital thing will be to secure the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra and its consulates in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.
While attacks on foreign embassies in Australia are uncommon, they are not without precedent.
On June 17, 1995 the French consulate in Perth was fire-bombed as tensions ran high over France's decision to resume nuclear testing on Moruroa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1992, a group of dissidents attacked the Iranian Embassy and in 2012 a similar attack saw Syria's embassy trashed.
Then the Government will turn its thoughts to a list of options.
That list is likely to include:
* Withdrawing the ambassador (something Australia has never done in response to an execution);
* Cutting the $600 million in aid Australia will give Indonesia this year;
* Pulling out of the annual leaders' meeting;
* Pulling out of the regular two-plus-two gatherings of defence and foreign ministers;
* Suspending other ministerial contact;
* Suspending any meetings that involve departmental secretaries and deputy secretaries;
* Suspending the myriad routine meetings of officials on issues such as defence, law and education;
* Refusing to offer support to Indonesia for things it wants in international forums;
* Not sending a high-ranking officer to mark the retirement of the head of the Indonesian Armed Forces, General Moeldoko, in July
There are also some things it won't contemplate, such as:* Cutting the $600 million in aid Australia will give Indonesia this year;
* Pulling out of the annual leaders' meeting;
* Pulling out of the regular two-plus-two gatherings of defence and foreign ministers;
* Suspending other ministerial contact;
* Suspending any meetings that involve departmental secretaries and deputy secretaries;
* Suspending the myriad routine meetings of officials on issues such as defence, law and education;
* Refusing to offer support to Indonesia for things it wants in international forums;
* Not sending a high-ranking officer to mark the retirement of the head of the Indonesian Armed Forces, General Moeldoko, in July
* Doing anything that hurts trade or tourism;
* Getting involved in any kind of tit-for-tat economic sanctions;
* Reducing cooperation between the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian National Police
Of course, the risk is that action by Australia provokes a response from Indonesia.* Getting involved in any kind of tit-for-tat economic sanctions;
* Reducing cooperation between the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian National Police
The response the Australian Government fears more than most in this regard is that the pipeline of asylum seekers might be reopened.
Whatever Australia does to express its anger, it will not remain in place forever.
In the end, both countries need each other and neither wants the relationship to be permanently damaged.
*Reporting by ABC Australia: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-28/bali-nine-australia-will-be-forced...
