[Kabar-indonesia] 5 Poso Three Reports: AI Expresses Dismay [+2 JP Op-Eds; Security]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

5 reports: 

- Amnesty expresses dismay over impending 
  Indonesian executions

- JP Op-Ed by Dave McRae: Executing Tibo 
  solves nothing 

- JP Op-Ed: Why the controversy over Poso three? 

- Reuters: Indonesia tightens security for Christians' 
  execution

- AP: Security crackdown on Indonesian island 
  ahead of executions of Christian militants

Amnesty expresses dismay over impending Indonesian executions

JAKARTA, September 20 (AFP) -- Amnesty International expressed dismay
Wednesday over plans by the Indonesian government to execute three
Christian death row prisoners this week, defying an earlier papal plea
for clemency.

"Amnesty International is deeply disappointed to hear that Fabianus
Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu may be executed this week,"
the international rights group said in an emailed statement to AFP.

"It is shocking to hear that the executions are going ahead despite
the high level of debate the case has sparked across the country about
the use of the death penalty."

The trio of peasant farmers were convicted in 2001 of leading a
Christian militia which carried out grisly murders of Muslims in
religiously-divided Central Sulawesi. They are due to be executed by
firing squad on Thursday.

International rights groups and activists have argued that their
trials were unfair and have left the masterminds roaming free.

Some Indonesians also fear that their cases have been politicised and
effectively linked with those of three Islamic militants who also
await execution for their roles in the deadly 2002 Bali bombings.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Christians
and Muslims live in roughly equal numbers in Central Sulawesi, where
police have boosted security ahead of the executions.

"The organisation believes that the use of the death penalty is
inherently an injustice and we urge the President of Indonesia to
follow the recent moves in Southeast Asia for the abolition of the
death penalty by granting clemency to the three men and all other
prisoners currently sentenced to death in Indonesia," the Amnesty
statement added.

The executions of the trio would be the first since May 2005 in
Indonesia, when a convicted murderer faced the firing squad.

The three Christians were initially readied for execution last month,
but were granted a last-minute reprieve after Pope Benedict issued a
plea for mercy to the Indonesian government, though authorities denied
there was a connection.

Clashes between Muslims and Christians in 2000 and 2001 left more than
1,000 dead in Central Sulawesi. A government-brokered peace accord
largely ended widespread unrest, but sporadic violence has persisted.

-------------------------------------

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Op-Ed

Executing Tibo solves nothing 

Dave McRae, Jakarta

Barring a last minute reprieve, Tibo, Dominggus and Marinus will be executed 
this Thursday. The three Catholic men have now been on death row for five 
years, after being sentenced to death in 2001 for inciting others to commit murder 
during the communal conflict in Poso. 

Although their deaths now appear imminent, the case for executing the men 
does not stand up to scrutiny and the facts of their case remain poorly 
understood. Executing the men is unlikely to lead to renewed open conflict in Poso, but 
it will solve nothing. 

One of the key arguments in favor of the executions has been that it is 
necessary to respect the final decision of the courts and the punishments set out 
under the Indonesian legal system. In fact, even putting aside the 
well-documented irregularities in the conduct of the trial, the court's judgment does not 
bear close inspection. The judges -- two Muslims and a Christian -- did not 
always make it clear what items of evidence supported the conviction or how they 
concluded the men were guilty. When they did cite particular witness 
testimony, it was the testimony of a young Muslim man called Anton, the least credible 
witness at the trial. 

Anton provided a very detailed account of Tibo, Dominggus and Marinus's 
alleged role in training other Christians to fight, but he also made the 
implausible claim that Christians took delivery of 727 factory standard firearms. The 
judges tacitly acknowledged his claims about the guns were false, but did not 
feel this discredited the remainder of his testimony. 

In any case, the basis for the murder conviction is often misunderstood by 
supporters and opponents of the execution alike. The prosecution did not present 
any witness who saw the men perpetrate a murder. The judges found the Tibo, 
Dominggus and Marinus guilty because they believed that the three men had been 
proven to be among the leaders of Christians forces during fighting in 
May-June 2000 and had incited others to kill. As a result, whether or not the men 
were leaders became the crucial point in convicting them, rather than their 
presence at any specific violent incident. 

Contrary to a common misconception that the case against each man is 
identical, the evidence presented at the trial to prove each man was a leader varied 
markedly. Both Tibo and Dominggus appear to have been more than rank-and-file 
combatants, though not the highest leaders of Christian forces. Each also 
acknowledged the veracity of their interrogation depositions, of which Tibo's in 
particular contained incriminating, if inconsistent, information. 

The case presented in the trial against Marinus was very weak. Apart from the 
testimony of Anton, who said Marinus had instructed other Christians in the 
use of arrows, Marinus was hardly mentioned during the trial. Despite these 
differences, the judges in the three men's trial (they were tried together) did 
little to treat the men's cases individually. 

Even if Tibo and Dominggus were more than rank-and-file combatants, their 
death sentence is excessive, and highly unusual in Poso. Although at least 150 
people have stood trial in connection with a conflict that has persisted for 
eight years and in which at least 500 people have been killed, no one else has 
received a sentence longer than fifteen years. 

Most sentences -- for both Muslims and Christians -- have been five years or 
less, even for murder or the equivalent offense under the terrorism law. And 
despite the relatively high number of trials, a striking number of cases of 
violence directed at both religious communities have never been satisfactorily 
investigated. 

Some argue that executing the men is a way of showing respect for the victims 
of violence in Poso and their families. This sets a poor precedent: that 
death is the only appropriate response to violence. This could have consequences 
for the Muslim men suspected of perpetrating the October 2005 beheading of 
three schoolgirls and the May 2005 bombing of the Christian town Tentena, which 
killed 23. 

In the Tibo case, protests in Poso itself for and against executing the three 
men have largely been polarized along religious lines, aggravating old 
enmities from the conflict. If the executions do go ahead, it could start a cycle of 
public demands for the death penalty, again playing upon the same religious 
enmities. 

Nor should it be thought that executing Tibo, Dominggus and Marinus will 
address demands from Poso's Muslim community for justice. Demands will rightly 
continue for other unsolved cases to be investigated, and those implicated in 
violence to be brought to trial. 

Two particular incidents that Muslims see as symbolic of injustice are the 
May 2000 Walisongo massacre -- in which around 100 Muslims were killed -- and 
July 2001 Buyung Katedo killings -- in which fourteen Muslims were murdered. The 
way to satisfy demands for justice is to systematically investigate unsolved 
cases, including these two incidents, not to use executions as a band-aid 
solution. 

The choice is not simply between executing the men or not punishing them at 
all, as some DPR members have suggested. The best course of action now would be 
to commute the three men's sentences to life imprisonment. 

This is what President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should have done when Tibo, 
Dominggus and Marinus first submitted their plea for clemency in April 2005. In 
so doing he would have prevented the men's case becoming such a focal point 
for protests. He still has one last chance to prevent three more deaths being 
added to the Poso conflict. 

The writer is a specialist on the Poso conflict at the Australian National 
University. He can be reached at dgmcrae at gmail.com. 

----------------------------------------

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Op-Ed

Why the controversy over Poso three? 

Daniel Hummel, Omaha, Nebraska

The recent controversy surrounding the executions of the Poso three, the men 
accused of perpetrating the massacres of Muslim men, women and children in 
Poso, Central Sulawesi has not been surprising. 

In recent articles in The Jakarta Post this has become more and more clear. 
In an article titled Religious heads differ on death penalty on Aug. 24, a 
Catholic priest argues against the death penalty. In that same issue in the 
opinion column a political risk analyst highlights the ineffectiveness of the death 
penalty to deter crime. In another issue on Aug. 26 an article titled 
Christian party wants Poso executions stayed showed political opposition. 

These three articles were only the few out of many underlining opposition to 
the executions. Arguments such as international pressure, possible sparking of 
violence, incomplete evidence, and even a complete rearranging of the 
judicial system to eliminate the death penalty from the books has been voiced. These 
arguments have been produced by both Christians and Muslims and one argument 
in particular will be addressed here, the legality of the death penalty. 

First, does Christianity support the death penalty? In the history of 
Christianity as an organized force it has been in full support of capital punishment. 
>From the textual aspect the Bible is full with capital punishments, but even 
if the Mosaic law is set aside, which Jesus never intended, the injunction to 
"shed" the blood of man who sheds blood is in Genesis 9:6 which belongs not to 
Mosaic law but to the general creation stories accepted by both Christians 
and Jews. 

The only possible rejection of capital punishment in the New Testament is the 
story of Jesus allowing the adulterous woman to avoid the capital punishment 
for her crime in John 8: 1-11. This story however inspirational has been found 
to be a corruption of the original text of the Gospel of John as it states in 
the New International Version that, "The earliest manuscripts and many other 
ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53 - 8:11". 

Second, does Islam support the death penalty? Islam also supports the death 
penalty from an organized and scriptural perspective. Muslims benefited from 
having a complete system passed onto them in the Koran and hadith (traditions of 
the Prophet Muhammad) and real-life examples set by the crown-jewel of the 
Muslim world and history, the city-state of Medina. 

In Chapter five (The Table) of the Koran there are several verses that are 
applicable to this discussion. In verse 45 the concept of Qisas (equal 
punishment) is elucidated with the "life for life" paradigm. This verse is preceded and 
followed with examples that this was the justice of Moses in the Torah and it 
was further confirmed by Jesus with a clear line drawn to the Koran (Chapter 
5: 44-50). 

In that same verse (45) about Qisas there is a strong urge to remit the 
punishment of the guilty by way of charity and "it shall be for him an expiation 
(English translation of the Koran)." Here the "him" is the closest relatives of 
the victim or the victim himself and the "expiation" is in reference to his 
(the victims relatives or the victims) sins. This doesn't ignore the legality of 
it, or the human need for justice. 

In the Poso three case the men guilty of the crimes are Christian and the 
crimes they committed were against Muslims. In sharia they would be held to 
Islamic principles of justice, but even falling back on their own laws, the case 
would remain the same. 

This could be taken a step further by pointing out that in Romans 13: 1-7 the 
Christians are told to submit themselves to the authorities and in this case 
the Poso three have been convicted of mass-murder and the justice in this land 
is capital punishment. The reality is though that this is not about 
scripture, doctrine, right and wrong, or faith, this is about polemic. 

This polemic exists world-wide and is not isolated to Indonesia. The fact is 
that most polemics are political, for instance, the polemics during the 
collapse of the Caliphate (Leadership) in Islam was because of political rifts 
between Ali (succeeding Caliph after the assassination of Uthman the third Caliph) 
and Mu'awiya (the governor of what is today Syria) and this continues today 
with the Shia (party of Ali) and the Sunnis as witnessed in the blood-shed in 
Iraq recently. 

In Christianity, polemics split the religion into a thousand different sects, 
even at the beginning when there was debate about whether Jesus was the 
literal "son of God" or not (See Arianism and a great article written by Dr. Robert 
D. Crane titled The political origins of heresy during the first six 
centuries of Christianity). 

In Indonesia here we have these two religious groups in a secular country. 
Instead of following the scriptures of the faiths they profess, they treat them 
like fraternities or clubs. One is either in it or not. And just like in 
sports, argue any call so long as it affects the team's chances of winning. 

It would be nice to see the Vatican offer condolences for those killed in the 
bloodshed, instead of trying to put international pressure on the Indonesian 
government to allow the convicts go. If this was a Sharia State, the verdict 
would be completely left to the relatives of the victims and their verdict is 
clear. 

The writer is a Masters student at the University of Nebraska Omaha in Public 
Administration, with special interests in Public Budgeting and Sharia State. 
He can be reached at neworleans_la at hotmail.com. 

----------------------------------------

Indonesia tightens security for Christians' execution

JAKARTA, September 20 (Reuters) - Indonesia has tightened security in
Central Sulawesi province ahead of the execution of three Christians
convicted of leading a mob that killed Muslims six years ago, police
said on Wednesday.

The three men -- Fabianus Tibo, Marianus Riwu and Dominggus Silva --
are due to face a firing squad on Thursday in the provincial capital,
Palu, a move that many fear could spark fresh religious tensions in
the area.

The poor farmers were sentenced to death in 2001 after being found
guilty of leading Christian mobs in a series of attacks that killed
about 200 people, including over 70 at an Islamic boarding school,
during Muslim-Christian clashes in Poso region.

About 4,000 police and soldiers have been deployed in Palu, said
provincial police spokesman Muhammad Kilat.

"We are increasing our vigilance to anticipate any untoward
incidents," he said, adding that so far there were no signs of a major
protest rally against the executions.

In recent weeks, there have been sporadic attacks, mainly targeting
Christians, in Poso. Two people were killed this month in two separate
bomb blasts in Poso.

The exact time and location for the executions are not disclosed.

The men were scheduled to face a firing squad last month but the
decision was delayed after demonstrations by thousands of Indonesians,
and an appeal from Pope Benedict.

There have been protests and counter-protests by Muslims and
Christians for and against the execution. Earlier this month,
thousands of Christians rallied to demand the execution be cancelled.

The men appealed for presidential clemency for a second time last
month. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rejected their appeals for a
pardon last year and there has been no indication he will change his
mind this time.

Indonesia last carried out an execution in March last year when a
woman in East Java province was put to death in a multiple murder and
mutilation case.

Muslim-Christian clashes erupted in Central Sulawesi from late 1998 to
2001, killing an estimated 2,000 before a peace accord took effect.

Three Islamic militants have also been sentenced to death for their
leading roles in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202
people.

The attorney-general's office said on Aug. 21 their executions would
be delayed for a judicial review planned by defence lawyers.

Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people follow Islam, but
some areas in eastern Indonesia have roughly equal proportions of
Muslims and Christians.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Security crackdown on Indonesian island 
ahead of executions of Christian militants

PALU, Indonesia, September 20 (AP) - Indonesia deployed thousands of
police on restive Sulawesi island ahead of Thursday's planned
executions of three Christians found guilty of leading deadly attacks
on Muslims six years ago.

Amid complaints that the men did not receive a fair trial, a top
Christian leader Wednesday urged his community not to resort to
violence and to pray that the president would grant them a last-minute
reprieve.

Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva were found guilty
of leading a Christian militia that launched a series of attacks on
Muslims in May 2000 on Sulawesi -- including a gun and machete assault
that killed at least 70 people who had taken refuge in an Islamic
school.

The incident was one of the bloodiest in two years of fighting between
Muslim and Christian gangs on the island that killed at least 1,000
people from both faiths.

Christian groups note that only a handful of people have been
convicted in the violence, and that Tibo, Riwu and da Silva were the
only ones sentenced to death.

"Everyone is angry, including me," said Rinaldy Damanik, the head of
Central Sulawesi assembly of churches, as he called on his followers
to refrain from violence. "But we hate terrorists, so we cannot behave
like them."

The police chief in Poso, scene of the worst fighting in early 2000,
said the city was calm.

"But we are prepared to handle any reaction against the executions by
deploying about 2,000 police, including a mobile brigade, a bomb squad
and an anti-terror unit," said Lt. Col. Rudy Sufahriyadi.

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------