Indonesia defends executions, Australia withdraws ambassador

CILACAP, INDONESIA // Indonesia on Wednesday staunchly defended its execution of seven foreigners including two Australians as a vital front of its war on drugs as testimony emerged of how they went singing to their deaths.

In an unprecedented move, Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest at the midnight executions but Indonesian president Joko Widodo said he was merely applying “the rule of law” against narcotics traffickers.

The seven convicts – two from Australia, one from Brazil and four from Africa – were shot by firing squad along with one Indonesian, despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members.

Brazil expressed “deep regret” at the execution of its national, who is mentally ill according to his family, and said it was weighing its next move.

The condemned men reportedly all refused blindfolds and sang hymns, among them Amazing Grace, as they went to face the firing squad in a jungle clearing, said a pastor who was with them.

As the clock ticked down to midnight, a group of tearful supporters also sang hymns, embraced and held candles aloft during a vigil at the port in Cilacap, the gateway to the prison island of Nusakambangan.

After the executions, family members were crying as they were being ushered away by friends and supporters.

A Filipina originally set to be executed was given an 11th hour reprieve after a woman who allegedly tricked her into ferrying drugs to Indonesia surrendered to police in the Philippines.

The reprieve for Mary Jane Veloso was hailed in the Philippines as a miracle and a gift from God, but Indonesian Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo stressed it was only a “postponement” to allow time for police investigations.

He added: “We are fighting a war against horrible drug crimes that threaten our nation’s survival. I would like to say that an execution is not a pleasant thing. It is not a fun job.”

“We are not making enemies of countries from where those executed came,” Mr Prasetyo said.

Mr Prasetyo also played down Australia’s decision to recall its ambassador, describing it as a “temporary reaction”, while foreign minister Retno Marsudi stressed Jakarta’s desire to “continue having good relations” with one of its most important trading partners.

Australia had mounted a sustained campaign to save its citizens, who have been on death row for almost a decade, and prime minister Tony Abbott said the executions were “both cruel and unnecessary”.

“We respect Indonesia’s sovereignty but we do deplore what’s been done and this cannot be simply business as usual,” he said, announcing Australia’s unprecedented step of recalling its Jakarta ambassador.

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” heroin trafficking gang, were described by Canberra as reformed men after years in prison.

The families said their sons did “all they could to make amends, helping many others” in the years since their arrests, with Sukumaran teaching fellow inmates English and art, and Chan ordained as a minister in February.

“They asked for mercy, but there was none,” the families said in a joint statement.

Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, called the executions “extremely sad”.

“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 on its own territory,” he said.

* Agence France-Presse