Indonesia's death-row double standard

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in the workshop
of Kerobokan jail in Bali. Picture: Bintoro Lukman

INDONESIA is aggressively pushing for its own people to be spared the death penalty in other countries, as it prepares to execute two Australian drug smugglers.

An Indonesian taskforce has successfully fought for the lives of more than 60 of its citizens sentenced to death overseas, while the nation holds about 100 people on death row in its own jails.

An Amnesty International report into death sentences and executions in 2012 notes the Migrant Workers Protection Task Force, set up in 2011, had by June last year come to the aid of "at least 67" Indonesians who had been working in China, Iran, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia and were facing death.

The global justice group wants the country to apply the same compassion to Bali Nine drug mules Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who are awaiting news on whether Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will grant them clemency.

More than 6500 people have signed an online petition calling for life imprisonment instead since the pair made an impassioned plea for help in News Ltd publications on Sunday.

Their support came as Foreign Minister Bob Carr again appealed for the Indonesians to spare the lives of Chan and Sukumaran, who led a 2005 bid to traffic 8.2kg of heroin from Bali to Australia.
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop urged Senator Carr to continue his fight.

"The Coalition is opposed to the death penalty and respectfully urges Indonesian President Yudhoyono to grant clemency to the two members of the Bali Nine who are still facing execution," she said.

The fight comes as Indonesia plans an increase in executions. It expects to put 10 people to death this year, including a Malawian drug trafficker who in March died in the country's first execution since 2008. The intensification comes after Indonesia had appeared to move away from its death penalty stance in recent years.

In November, Indonesia abstained from voting in the United Nation's General Assembly on a moratorium on executions. It had previously opposed the idea.

Courtesy: News.com.au