Bali Nine Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran to be executed together in Bal

[herbavore]

Blunt Instrument: The racism of not caring

There's a reason 'we' don't care about the Bali Two about to be put to death by the Indonesian state. They're not white, so they're not us.

We can hide behind the fact that they're a couple of drug mules, sure. Possibly even minor principals. The load of heroin they planned to bring in might well have killed a couple of other people. If not, it wouldn't have done them any good.

But that's not why 'we' remain unperturbed by these looming executions. 'We' don't care because they don't look like us. And their names are not O'Reilly or Smith. The Indonesians are going to shoot a Chan and a…

Pop quiz. Without looking, can you even spell the other guy's name?

...

...

...

It's Myuran Sukumaran.

What the hell even is that?

A drug dealer's name, that's what. The name of a cypher. A bunch of letters, all jumbled and smashed together waiting for a bullet to carry them away.

And that bullet's coming, partly because 'we' just don't care.

I use the air quotes because some do. But as a whole, as a clan, we do not.

Some pinhead at Triple J got in trouble for exposing this unpalatable truth with a poorly framed poll, but it's hardly the pinhead's fault. The poll just highlighted what seems obvious. Most people don't care. The AFP should be turning on the spit roast for the ignoble role they played in putting these Australians in front of a firing squad. But they're not and we don't care.

Oddly enough, the political class do. Across the aisles of the national Parliament there seems a genuine concern. Even revulsion. Politicians understand the dread power of the state and even the most conservative pause before the prospect of ceding to Hobbes' leviathan the ultimate sanction of exterminating a human being by rule of law.

Not us though, mate. Not we of the Saturday lawn mowing and Bunnings sausage sizzle. Not we of the footy tipping comp and the office morning tea. We of the afternoon school run and long weekend up the coast, we just don't care. We of the sav blanc and the well packed cone, the quick ping and the festival eccies, we really don't care.

Maybe if they were blonde and not so apparently alien.

But they're not like us. They're different. They're not our tribe.

So yeah, kill 'em we say. See if we care.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/com...the-racism-of-not-caring-20150217-13ghw0.html

So true, and sadly repeated the world over.

 

[cj]

The Australian government has done all it can reasonably be expected to do. Way more than the American government would have done for one of its citizens.

 

[SixBuckets]

they live in a third world country war zone. I think heroin improves their shitty lives greatly.

I also imagine that the ability to easily connect to (slash the existence of) support and health services makes a big difference. But, yeah, I don't think evaluating whether people can stick to a maintenance dose (I actually couldn't find any information on the quantities used, just media articles saying that there are 'a lot' of heroin users) in a war zone is entirely honest.

 

[motiv311]

The Australian government has done all it can reasonably be expected to do. Way more than the American government would have done for one of its citizens.

I agree with this^ You would be lucky to get this much support from the USA if this had happened to americans

 

[cj]

I also imagine that the ability to easily connect to (slash the existence of) support and health services makes a big difference. But, yeah, I don't think evaluating whether people can stick to a maintenance dose (I actually couldn't find any information on the quantities used, just media articles saying that there are 'a lot' of heroin users) in a war zone is entirely honest.

Vice did a documentary on the Kabul heroin "epidemic" that's interesting.

 

[SixBuckets]

Vice did a documentary on the Kabul heroin "epidemic" that's interesting.

Oh, cool. I'll check it out.

My point didn't really have anything to do with numbers of people using heroin or associated harms, though - it was just that we have a fair bit of evidence that if people are provided with a steady stream of reliable quality heroin, it's entirely possible for them to hit their comfortable dose and maintain.

 

[poledriver]

Mother whose daughter died of heroin overdose says Bali Nine duo ‘should be executed’

A MELBOURNE mother who lost her teenage daughter to a heroin overdose has bravely spoken out against public support for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, saying she hopes the men are executed.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have been among those to condemn Indonesia for its planned execution of the men who have served ten years jail for coordinating a plot to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin into Australia.

Public anger has even triggered a mass social media campaign to “Boycott Bali” in protest against the men’s treatment.

But Melbourne’s Beverley Neal said she “prayed that the men do get executed” and people started to realise they could not get drugs from Bali.

“These are criminals who have been glorified as heroes,” said Ms Neal.

“Who knows how many other lives would have been lost if they had not been caught in Bali.”

Indonesia’s attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo yesterday said “nothing whatsoever” could stop the execution of Chan and Sukumaran, vowing they would face the firing squad as soon as possible.

His claims were at odds with Indonesia’s vice president Yusuf Kalla whose office claimed a delay of three weeks to a month on the executions had been conveyed to Ms Bishop in a phone call this week.

Cont -

http://www.news.com.au/national/mot...ould-be-executed/story-fncynjr2-1227232919861

 

[poledriver]

Indonesia says it has weapons ready if anyone interferes with the transfer of prisoners

THE Indonesian military is preparing to mobilise weapons systems to counter “threats” in the coming transfer of Bali Nine leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from Bali to the prison island of Nusakambangan.

In signs Indonesia is reacting extremely badly to Australia’s relatively moderate condemnation of the executions, the head of Indonesia’s armed forces, four-star General Moeldoko, gave a barely veiled warning for Australia to keep its distance.

“We will hold a meeting to discuss the possibility of threats,” the general told Indonesian media.

“Intelligence units and weapons will be ready. Special unit commanders must also be ready.”

The statements indicate the Indonesian military, or TNI, will now take over the transfer of the pair from Bali from the paramilitary police force Brimob, which had previously been tasked with moving them.

It is a serious ramping up of intent as the anger at Australian efforts to save the condemned pair — which included Prime Minister Tony Abbott asking Indonesia to remember the $1 billion in aid Australia gave after the 2004 tsunami — is becoming visceral in Indonesia.

General Moeldoko said he would give all support President Joko Widodo in his commitment to execute the Australians.

The general’s comments are a new level of rhetoric designed to play to the local audience and to apparently give the impression that Australia, unthinkable as it is, could use military intervention to save the pair.

http://www.news.com.au/world/brekki...fer-of-prisoners/story-fndir2ev-1227233243837

 

[poledriver]

[video=youtube_share;tVj7aTtGCMI]http://youtu.be/tVj7aTtGCMI[/video]

 

[cj]

Indonesia says it has weapons ready if anyone interferes with the transfer of prisoners

THE Indonesian military is preparing to mobilise weapons systems to counter “threats” in the coming transfer of Bali Nine leaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from Bali to the prison island of Nusakambangan.

In signs Indonesia is reacting extremely badly to Australia’s relatively moderate condemnation of the executions, the head of Indonesia’s armed forces, four-star General Moeldoko, gave a barely veiled warning for Australia to keep its distance.

“We will hold a meeting to discuss the possibility of threats,” the general told Indonesian media.

“Intelligence units and weapons will be ready. Special unit commanders must also be ready.”

The statements indicate the Indonesian military, or TNI, will now take over the transfer of the pair from Bali from the paramilitary police force Brimob, which had previously been tasked with moving them.

It is a serious ramping up of intent as the anger at Australian efforts to save the condemned pair — which included Prime Minister Tony Abbott asking Indonesia to remember the $1 billion in aid Australia gave after the 2004 tsunami — is becoming visceral in Indonesia.

General Moeldoko said he would give all support President Joko Widodo in his commitment to execute the Australians.

The general’s comments are a new level of rhetoric designed to play to the local audience and to apparently give the impression that Australia, unthinkable as it is, could use military intervention to save the pair.

http://www.news.com.au/world/brekki...fer-of-prisoners/story-fndir2ev-1227233243837

That's a joke. Australia could bomb them into the stone age if they so chose.

 

[poledriver]

'Nobody consoled Marco': Last rites denied for prisoner executed before Bali nine duo

Indonesian authorities executed a Brazilian man last month without allowing a priest to perform the last rites as he waited for the firing squad.

The distressing mix-up, and horrific last minutes of Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, were relayed to Fairfax Media by Cilacap priest Father Charles Burrows, who was supposed to be called upon to comfort the man.

The account comes as the Brazilian government took the extraordinary step of refusing to accept the credentials of Indonesia's new ambassador in protest over its refusal to offer clemency to another of its citizens on death row, Rodrigo Gularte. Indonesia responded by recalling its ambassador-designate.

Moreira was executed on January 18, the last of five drug felons shot by firing squads on Nusakambangan, Indonesia's execution island that sits within sight of Cilacap.

"He had to be dragged from his cell crying and saying 'help me'," said Father Burrows.

"He actually excremented in his trousers".

The guards hosed him down but, says Father Burrows, he continued to weep "all the time up to his last minutes".

Moreira was a Catholic and Father Burrows was supposed to administer the sacrament of reconciliation and penance and the extreme unction. But there was a mixup and Father Burrows was not allowed on the island.

"I kept telling them I wanted to be there. The wardens were very polite but the attorney wouldn't give me a letter to get onto the island. The Brazilian embassy was very upset. They told me nobody went forward to look after him.

"Usually there is a time when the minister or spiritual director gets to go forward to console them. Nobody consoled Marco."

Brazil is also deeply angry about the treatment of Gularte, who is a paranoid schizophrenic, and therefore should be exempt from execution under Indonesian law.

Gularte, 42, has been on death row since 2004 for smuggling six kilos of cocaine into Indonesia in surf boards.

"This is one of the reasons why the clemency should be assessed case by case. There should not be a blanket rejection," said Gularte's Indonesian lawyer Ricco Akbar.

"If it was done case by case, it would be known that Rodrigo was suffering a mental illness. His clemency would not have been rejected in the first place."

Mr Akbar called on the "wise" president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, to reconsider the case.

Brazil's president Dilma Rousseff said clearance for Indonesia's representative would be delayed while Brasilia and Jakarta remained at loggerheads over Gularte's execution.

The blanket denial of clemency for drug convicts on death row by Mr Joko will be the subject of an appeal to the administrative court on Tuesday by the lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two Australians on death row in Bali.

Cont -

http://www.smh.com.au/world/nobody-...ted-before-bali-nine-duo-20150221-13l3o9.html

 

[fatstep]

Seems like they are pushing it back for whatever reason

 

[poledriver]

Letters Defending an Australian Drug Convict Investigated: Kerobokan Prison Warden

DENPASAR ~

Warden of Kerobokan Penitentiary Sudjonggo said he would investigate the truth of letters written by a dozen of inmates defending Andrew Chan (31), an Australian drug convicts on death row.

“We are investigating the truth of the letter,” he said on Monday in response to the letters directed by the Kerobokan prison’s inmates to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Sudjonggo said he would ask the prison’s church council about Andrew Chan’s activity and question the motive of the person who wrote the letter because Andrew Chan’s request for reviewing his case had been rejected a week ago.

He said he did not regard an inmate’s offering of sympathy to another prisoner as a problem but the inmate is not allowed to take over the prisoner’s sentence.

Previosuly, a total of eight prisoners of Penitentiary Class II-A Denpasar in Krobokan sent letter to President Joko Widodo in order to lighten the punishment of death penalty towards Australian citizen, Andrew Chan.

They asked President Joko Widodo to reconsider the punishment. They also expressed readiness to replace the death penalty against Andrew Chan if the president does not give leniency. The letter says that Andrew Chan has undergone many changes and he is needed by inmates in Kerobokan prison.

With some comments after the article -

http://www.thebalitimes.com/2015/02...convict-investigated-kerobokan-prison-warden/

 

[poledriver]

President Will Not Pardon Narcotics Convicts

JAKARTA ~

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will not pardon narcotics convicts, maintaining a firm stance with regard to efforts towards fighting drug offenses, which he views as dangerous and serious.

“I have stressed that I will not pardon drug convicts who have been given the capital punishment,” the president said during a coordination meeting with the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) on Wednesday.

He added, “Efforts towards eradicating narcotics cases should be stepped up and not ignored because we are now in an emergency situation. All related parties should cooperate well.” Jokowi revealed that at present, an average of 50 deaths occur every day due to narcotics abuse, which means some 18,000 victims die due to drug addiction in one year.

“I explained this to other heads of states as well, after the recent execution of drug convicts sentenced to death. I explained this to the presidents and prime ministers who contacted me asking for clemency (for convicts from their respective countries). They should know that as many as 50 people die every day due to addiction to drugs. This does not include the 4.2 to 4.5 million others who are undergoing rehabilitation,” Jokowi stated.

According to the president, the saddening figures necessitate the involvement of all people in the country to fight the crime.

“About 70 percent of inmates were involved in narcotics offenses. We have to adopt a firm and serious attitude to tackle this. Tolerance is no longer acceptable,” he emphasized.

Jokowi also admitted to have been under pressure from various sides in the run-up to the execution of the narcotic death convicts.

“When the executions were to be carried out, there were pressures coming in from all sides. I handled them easily. There are 64 narcotic convicts on death row,” he pointed out.

In keeping with these efforts, the president has asked governors, district heads and mayors to work in tandem to fight narcotics cases and to eradicate the crime by adopting a no-tolerance policy.

“I have also given orders to the BNN with regard to rehabilitation. Last year, there were 18,000 deaths. If the cases reach 18,000 every year, when will it end? So this year, the BNN should prepare faster ways of rehabilitating addicts. We should think about it,” Jokowi noted.

Furthermore, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno recently said that the rejection of clemency petitions of several drug convicts on death row was aimed at deterring narcotics smugglers.

“The president will continue to reject clemency petitions from drugs convicts. This is to create a deterrent effect among drug dealers,” Purdijatno stated.

With comments -

http://www.thebalitimes.com/2015/02/16/president-will-not-pardon-narcotics-convicts/

 

[One Thousand Words]

Oh, cool. I'll check it out.

My point didn't really have anything to do with numbers of people using heroin or associated harms, though - it was just that we have a fair bit of evidence that if people are provided with a steady stream of reliable quality heroin, it's entirely possible for them to hit their comfortable dose and maintain.

You have never met many opiate addicts have you? Even long term pain patients with a steady flow of prescribed meds develop a tolerance in next to no time.

Methadone maintenance is far mor common in western society and I've never met anyone who looks back 10 years down the track and feels that such a treatment made their lives better. A noose is a noose

 

[cj]

Methadone maintenance is far mor common in western society and I've never met anyone who looks back 10 years down the track and feels that such a treatment made their lives better. A noose is a noose

Since you haven't met one I guess that means they don't exist. Ive never been on methadone but I will tell you that suboxone maintenance has saved my life or at the very least extended it significantly. Furthermore methadone is the statistically most effective way to treat opioid addiction.

 

[harmacologist]

Just stay away from those shithole countries at all costs.

Yeah I don't wanna go to Australia until Abbott isn't in office.

 

[poledriver]

heh. Wimp.

 

[SixBuckets]

Mother whose daughter died of heroin overdose says Bali Nine duo ‘should be executed’

A MELBOURNE mother who lost her teenage daughter to a heroin overdose has bravely spoken out against public support for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, saying she hopes the men are executed.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop have been among those to condemn Indonesia for its planned execution of the men who have served ten years jail for coordinating a plot to smuggle 8.2 kilograms of heroin into Australia.

Public anger has even triggered a mass social media campaign to “Boycott Bali” in protest against the men’s treatment.

But Melbourne’s Beverley Neal said she “prayed that the men do get executed” and people started to realise they could not get drugs from Bali.

“These are criminals who have been glorified as heroes,” said Ms Neal.

“Who knows how many other lives would have been lost if they had not been caught in Bali.”

Indonesia’s attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo yesterday said “nothing whatsoever” could stop the execution of Chan and Sukumaran, vowing they would face the firing squad as soon as possible.

His claims were at odds with Indonesia’s vice president Yusuf Kalla whose office claimed a delay of three weeks to a month on the executions had been conveyed to Ms Bishop in a phone call this week.

Cont -

http://www.news.com.au/national/mot...ould-be-executed/story-fncynjr2-1227232919861

I really feel for this women and other people who have lost loved ones to drug ODs and want to seek some kind of emotional vengeance on other people involved in the drug trade. At the same time I want to write them a polite yet convincing letter pointing out that their loved ones wouldn't be any less dead if the heroin supply dried up and they'd been unknowingly sold high dose fentanyl or something like that. Because that's a lot more likely to happen than people just going "Oh, I can't get my drug of dependence. Guess I'll go play a game of badminton instead of shooting up."

Blaming the death of victims of drug prohibition on other victims of drug prohibition isn't really a winning strategy, IMO.

You have never met many opiate addicts have you? Even long term pain patients with a steady flow of prescribed meds develop a tolerance in next to no time.

Lol. I know (and have previously known) a fair few, both personally and professionally. I'm pretty familiar with the addiction/dependency 'life cycle'.

I don't know about any other country, but in Australia roughly one in five heroin users go on the develop dependencies. Admittedly, that makes it the most addictive illicit substance and the second most addictive drug in general next to tobacco (although those stats don't control for availability and the impact of prohibition). But still, that's 80% of users who never go on to use more frequently than once a month.

I'm not denying that tolerance is a thing. I'm saying that it usually has a ceiling. When extenuating circumstances are controlled for and proper education is provided, most people will not continuously increase their dose forever and ever until their heart gives out.

Methadone maintenance is far mor common in western society and I've never met anyone who looks back 10 years down the track and feels that such a treatment made their lives better. A noose is a noose

Really? I know a bunch.

And they're not just anonymous friends of mine who could be lying. They include, like, some of the most prominent out (current or former) drug users in the country. See, for example, anything Annie Madden from AIVL has said about her own experiences with opiate substitution therapy and its role in securing human rights for current and former drug users.

 

[poledriver]

Indonesian heroin smugglers ready to walk free while Chan and Sukumaran face death penalty

In two years' time, a big-time Indonesian heroin smuggler will become eligible for parole in the Australian prison system. If it is granted, he'll be taken to the airport and flown back home to his family.

Kristito Mandagi is one of three Indonesians who, like condemned Bali nine members Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were caught trying to import heroin to Australia.

Unlike the Australian pair, they were lucky to have been caught by the Australian police, not by those in Bali.

The freighter involved in the 390-kilogram heroin haul arrives in Sydney Harbour in October 1998. Photo: Rick Stevens

In two years' time, a big-time Indonesian heroin smuggler will become eligible for parole in the Australian prison system. If it is granted, he'll be taken to the airport and flown back home to his family.

Kristito Mandagi is one of three Indonesians who, like condemned Bali nine members Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were caught trying to import heroin to Australia.

Unlike the Australian pair, they were lucky to have been caught by the Australian police, not by those in Bali.
The freighter involved in the 390-kilogram heroin haul arrives in Sydney Harbour in October 1998.

The freighter involved in the 390-kilogram heroin haul arrives in Sydney Harbour in October 1998. Photo: Rick Stevens

They are particularly lucky because their heroin importation was 47 times bigger than Chan's and Sukumaran's.

Kristito, Saud Siregar and Ismunandar were the captain, the chief officer and the engineer of a boat carrying a staggering 390 kilograms of street-ready drugs and a loaded Glock pistol to a beach near Port Macquarie in NSW.

At the time, the haul, found in 31 designer sports bags, was Australia's largest drug bust.

The drugs, of which the pure heroin component weighed 252.3 kilograms, was worth $400 to $600 million on the street.

Their specially modified boat, the Uniana, with long-range fuel tanks, made the Bali nine's plastic bags, sticky-tape and mules venture at Bali airport look like amateur hour.

But instead of readying themselves to be taken out at dawn and their bodies riddled with bullets – the fate now facing Chan and Sukumaran – the three Indonesians are starting to think about heading home.

They have spent their sentences in Australian prisons in what even they concede is relative comfort.

In an interview in Indonesia's Tempo magazine in 2012, Ismunandar admitted he had little to complain about, citing Lithgow prison's fitness centre and a work scheme in which he could earn $40 a week.

The men were caught in 1998 in an operation that involved 76 Federal, NSW and Customs officers, a PolAir helicopter, two police vessels, the RAN frigate HMAS Bendigo and two Customs ships.

"This was a well-planned, efficiently executed criminal enterprise and ... Mandagi was the pivotal figure," NSW District Court Judge Kenneth Shadbolt said during sentencing in 2000.

"It was a crime of massive proportion ... the nature of the crime and its circumstances makes it one of the gravest of its type."

All three pleaded not guilty, but Mandagi got life with a non-parole period of 25 years.

The other two received 20-year sentences – the same as Schapelle Corby for her boogie board bag of 4.7 kilograms of marijuana.

Eight other Indonesians on the boat were never tried, and were sent home because police could not prove they knew of the drugs. Mandagi appealed and had six years knocked off his sentence.

He will be eligible for parole in October 2017. The other two can apply a year later.

They have had regular visits from Indonesia's consular officials. But in 2012, something so outrageous happened that they felt compelled to complain to anyone who would listen.

It was unfair, they insisted, that Corby had been granted clemency and a five-year sentence cut when the Australian government showed them no mercy at all.

"If only the Indonesian government had urged the Australian government to forgive us instead of cutting Corby's sentence, then I'd be a free man," Ismanandar told a Tempo magazine journalist in a prison interview.

A series of sympathetic stories in the Indonesian press followed, most of which failed to spell out the epic size of the men's haul.

Cont -

http://www.smh.com.au/national/indo...maran-face-death-penalty-20150222-13kc3h.html