doubts about the evidence against them, police officials and Christian rights investigators said late Thursday, September 21.
Fabianus Tibo, 61, Marianus Riwu, 48, and Dominggus Silva, 38, "seems" to have been executed [by a firing squad)…This is truly a black page in the history of the Indonesian Government," said Eline de Groot an official of the well-informed human rights watchdog Jubilee Campaign in a first reaction to BosNewsLife.
"The Indonesian Government has again proven that if falls short in bringing justice to the people. A fair process seems not possible for Indonesian citizens," she added, referring to what human rights groups have called the "shaky evidence" surrounding the case, she added.
Police officials confirmed that the Christians convicted of leading a mob that killed Muslims were executed by an Indonesian police firing squad on Friday, September 22, Indonesian time, in Central Sulawesi province, news reports said.
MEN SENTENCED
The men were sentenced to death in 2001, after being found guilty of leading a Christian mob in an attack that killed more than 200 people at an Islamic boarding school during Muslim-Christian clashes in Central Sulawesi’s Poso region.
"It has been done… the location was around the airport", a police official who declined to be identified told Reuters news agency. He said the bodies had been taken to a police hospital.
The trio had originally been scheduled to be shot in August in Palu, the capital of the province, but the execution was then postponed at the eleventh hour after demonstrations by thousands of Indonesians and an appeal from Pope Benedict XVI.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had rejected the men’s appeals for a pardon last year. They had asked him a second time for clemency last month.
INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE
As news spread, there was international outrage. "Every execution is an attack on humanity," the Dutch leading newsportal alpha-online.nl quoted a spokesperson of the Vatican as saying.
In Washington, International Christian Concern, a human rights group, also expressed anger. "Justice has once again been denied Indonesia’s Christians," said ICC analyst Jeremy Sewall. "I am deeply saddened at this news, and ask all concerned Christians to pray for the families of these men. This is a tragedy. This is not justice."
After their execution was stayed last month by the Attorney General for Central Sulawesi, Mohammad Yahya Sibe, he was suddenly replaced, recalled ICC with website www.persecution.org in a statement to BosNewsLife News Center. "He was the one who had to give the order for the executions to proceed. The Chief of Police was also suddenly replaced and sent to another department. The appeal for these men that should have lasted months or even a year to process was denied within weeks."
Tibo, Riwu, and Da Silva, all Christian, were the only men charged in the Poso conflict, even though the conflict started in 1998 and went till 2003. "This is a glaring injustice and hints of a massive coverup by the Indonesian government," ICC said. The group added it has personally investigated the Poso conflict. "Entire Christian villages were attacked with government munitions and burned down using Indonesian government fuel trucks."
CHILDREN BEHEADED
Christian adults and children were beheaded. "The Muslim community initiated the attacks and there was every indication that local Muslim government leaders were involved. Why were no Muslims ever charged in any of the attacks?," ICC wondered
"These men were sacrificed as scape-goats so that the Indonesian government could wash their hands and walk away from the Poso conflict of 1998 to 2003. But if Indonesia really wants to show the world they value truth, they should re-open the investigation into this conflict and find all those responsible for the violence," stated Sewall in a statement.
He said his group urged its supporters to "Please pray that the Christians in Poso will not seek revenge for these executions, and that instead they would trust God to administer justice in his own time." (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and BosNewsLife News Center. Stay with BosNewsLife for continues coverage).
