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September 21, 2006

Indonesia: Christians Executed For "Massacre" Of Muslims

Left to right - Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, Dominggus da Silva, 42

The three Christians who have been fighting against their death sentence, which was handed down in April 2001, after a trial which owed little to justice and more to appeasing Muslim activists, have been executed, states News.com.au and the Jakarta Post. The three, Fabianus Tibo, 60, Marinus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus da Silva, 42, were accused of being behind the massacre of Muslims in Poso in Central Sulawesi province in May 2000. The trial, which we described earlier had been unsatisfactory by normal judicial standards.

The three men, all Catholics, were natives of East Nusa Tenggara, a province which lies directly south of Sulawesi island. Many Christians had fled here from the violence meted out by the Islamists of Lashkar Jihad during the Moluccan War.

Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marinus Riwu came to Poso in Sulawesi in 2000, after hearing reports of a church being burned. They entered the area where violence was raging to evacuate children from a church-led school in the village of Moengko, Poso City. A Muslim mob came to the church on May 23, 2000 and burned the church down. The children and the three men escaped before the building was razed.

Irwanto Hasan, who was a member of the Poso Police Intelligence Division, stated that days later he and the three men had been recruited into the "Red Group" a militant Christian outfit. Hasan said they had acted to dissuade the Red Group from acts of violence.

Amnesty International stated that their trial, held at Palu District Court, did not "meet international standards of fairness. In particular, there are concerns that witness testimony provided as evidence by the defence may have been ignored by the Court when giving its verdict.

There were also reports that armed demonstrators were protesting outside the courthouse, demanding the conviction of the three men. Amnesty International is concerned that this intimidation may have affected the outcome of the trial."

Appeals had been made for clemency for the three men by the European Union, by US senators, Jubilee Foundation and Amnesty International, Indonesia's Bishops Conference (KWI) and by Pope Benedict XVI. None of these were listened to by Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has never reprieved anyone given a death sentence.

The three men had been scheduled to be shot by firing squad on August 12, but the execution was delayed, lest it interfere with Indonesia's Independence Day festivities. They appealed against the death sentence at the end of August, but the government insisted on the execution going ahead. Roy Rening, lawyer for one of the three men, said their second appeal was made "because their trials were full of fabrications."

On August 14, chief security minister Widodo Adi Sucipto said: "We are currently in the phase of executing the court ruling. The execution will still be carried out." Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda later said: "The execution has not been canceled, just delayed. We did receive letters from various quarters, including the one from the Vatican, although I didn't see it personally."

When an execution takes place, little warning is given, and the news of the executions being completed came several hours after their bodies were sent for autopsy.

Asia Times states that the Palu prosecutor's office denied the three men the right to attend mass before the execution, and also denied them the right to have a chapel of rest in Palu cathedral, as they had asked.

Antara News states that the families of the men were not informed of the imminent execution earlier today. Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, Synod chairman of the Central Sulawesi Christian Church, said: "As of 10.30 a.m. local time, neither has the GKST Synod nor Tibo et al`s families received official information about their execution."

Tibo`s eldest son, Robertus Tibo had been contacted by the reverend Damanik and had confirmed that no news of the execution had come. Robert Bala Keitimu, a lawyer for one of the men, also said the families had not been informed of the imminent execution. Rev Damanik said that it would be illegal to execute anyone without informing their families prior to the event.

Keitimu said that the case should be reopened, as the names of 16 individuals, who are believed to have done the killings for which the men were executed, are now known. He suggested the government wanted to cover up the truth behind the Poso riots.

There were protests yesterday on the island of Batam against the imminent executions, with more taking place in Belu district of Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara province, at which thousands attended. 10,000 people gathered in the square from 8 am, and then marched to the Atambua prosecutor's office, where many prayed.

The denial of the men's last requests was confirmed by Antara News. Father Jemmy Tumbelaka, religious counsel for the three men, met with Agus Setiawan, from the execution team. Tibo had asked for their bodies to be allowed to lie in St Mary Church for one day. That was refused.

Tibo and Marinus had also asked that their bodies be buried in Beteleme village, Mori Atas subdistrict, Morowali district, while Dominggus wanted his body returned to his family in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara province, for burial there.

The convicts also asked that their execution be witnesed by Joseph Suwathan (bishop of Manado, N Sulawesi), Father Jemmy Tumbelaka (for the St Theresia parish in Poso), Father Melky Toreh (for the Si Marry parish in Palu) and Roy Rening (lawyer for Tibo and his associates).

Their fourth request was that they be allowed to convey a special message to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono through mass media on many people`s rejection of their execution.

All of these requests were denied by Prosecutor Agus Setiawan of the prosecutors' office of Palu.

Yesterday, Dave McRae, of the Australian National University. wrote in the Jakarta Post;

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.

Earlier today, the Jakarta Post wrote that this afternoon, the condemned men did manage to meet their relatives and a priest, and called for further investigations to be made.

Extra security was installed in Central Sulawesi. Today, Indonesia deployed some 2,000 police and soldiers in Palu, some guarding churches that dot the city.

Their deaths were later confirmed by lawyer Roy Rening, who said: "They have been executed. Their bodies are now undergoing an autopsy at the police hospital." He refused to be present at the executions, and did not agree to protest the state's rejection of the three men's final requests.

The exact time of the executions seems to havve happened around midnight local time, while rain drizzled throughout the night.

Human rights groups have highlighted that the sectarian violence in Poso affected both sides, Christians and Muslim. While some Muslims have been found guilty of involvement in the bloodshed, none of these were sentenced to death. The maximum penalty for these individuals was a 15 year sentence.

And the real mastermind of the sectarian violence which engulfed Sulawesi and the Moluccas got off scot-free. The violence in Poso was part of a larger war, initiated by the Islamist Umar Jaffar Thalib and his army of Muslims, the Lashkar Jihad. This group was apparently set up with the approval of the then government in 1999. The war they created, the Moluccan War, cost the lives of 9,000 people between 1999 and 2002.

Thalib himself personally ordered the massacre at Soya village, a Christian enclave near Ambon city, which took place Sunday April 28, 2002. At least 21 people died. Small children and women were hacked at with machetes and decapitated, and men beaten to death with staves, beheaded, and burned alive in their homes. Jaffar Umar Thalib was put on trial in 2003, charged with "sowing hate". He was acquitted.

Justice for Christians in Indonesia is just an illusion, a mirage. The mirage is fading, and the judicial killing of three almost certainly innocent Catholics is a further sign that no-one in authority is even bothering to maintain the illusion.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at September 21, 2006 6:23 PM

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