Jakarta: Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed fury on Sunday after Jakarta defied their pleas and executed two of their citizens along with four other drug offenders by firing squad.
The other convicts were from Vietnam, Malawi, Nigeria and Indonesia. The six were the first people executed under new President Joko Widodo. Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Widodo, who took office in October, has disappointed rights activists by voicing support for capital punishment despite his image as a reformist.
A spokesman for Brazilian President Dilma Roussef said she was “distressed and outraged” after Indonesia ignored her last-ditch pleas and put to death Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, who was convicted of smuggling cocaine into Indonesia in 2004.
“Using the death penalty, which is increasingly rejected by the international community, seriously affects relations between our countries,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The Brazilian ambassador to Jakarta was being recalled for consultations, the spokesman added.
Meanwhile Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands had also recalled its ambassador over the execution of Dutchman Ang Kiem Soei, and described all six deaths as “terribly sad” in a statement. “My heart goes out to their families, for whom this marks a dramatic end to years of uncertainty,” Koenders said.
“The Netherlands remains opposed to the death penalty.” Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte had been in contact with the Indonesian president about the matter, he said, and the government had done “all in its power” to attempt to halt the execution.
Indonesia’s attorney general, H M Prasetyo, said today the death penalty was not “something pleasing or fun” but insisted the executions had been carried out in accordance with the law. “I hope everyone can understand this,” he told reporters. “Indonesia must be saved from narcotics…this is a crime against humanity that damages the morals of the younger generation.” He also insisted the death penalty was a “positive law for Indonesia”. All the prisoners, who had been sentenced to death between 2000 and 2011, were executed around the same time shortly after midnight, the attorney general’s office said. (AFP)
