Australia to ask Indonesia for clemency for drug smugglers
Updated
Australia may oppose the death penalty but Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says the government will not be intervening in the case of the three Bali bombers awaiting execution. However Australia will be appealing to the Indonesian President for clemency for three Australians on death row for drug smuggling.
Presenter: Michael Cavanagh
Speaker: Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.
CAVANAGH: The relationship between Indonesia and Australia has waxed and waned over the years presently it is quite strong, Australia coming to that country's assistance following the Tsunami and close cooperation on security matters has strengthened ties.
This has been reinforced by what is known as the Lombok Treaty signed by the previous Australian Conservative government and now backed by the Labor adminstration which came to power last year.
Going into that election Labor faced controversy after one of its parliamentarians criticised the then John Howard-led government's backing of the death penalty faced by the three Bali bombers for their role in the 2002 attack which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.
The Australian Labor Party quickly reversed the condemnation of Mr Howard's stand.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says the government is also willing to look at individual cases which may not involve Australians but this view stops when it comes to the case of the Bali bombers...
SMITH: If it's anyone else, we'll make a judgement on a case by case basis as to whether we should make an individual representation. But the Prime Minister and I have both made clear that we don't propose to make representations on behalf of terrorists who have been subject to the death penalty. So I won't be making any individual representations so far as the Bali bombers are concerned.
And I think that's appropriate. People would be expect me to be making representations so far as Australians are concerned, but I'm not proposing to make any individual representations so far as the terrorists engaged in the Bali bombing are concerned.
CAVANAGH: This stand has left the government open to charges of hypocracy.
Apart from the three young Australians facing execution for their role in attempting to smuggle drugs through Indonesia there are two Australians on death row in Vietnam.
Mr Smith says the government is working to have these sentences reversed.
SMITH: We have three of the Bali nine still subject to a death penalty. I'll make inquiries about the progress of their cases through the Indonesia legal and judicial systemn and again make the point that when those process are completed and any of those three still remain the subject of the death penalty we'll making a plea for clemency in accordance with our normal processes."
CAVANAGH: The Australian government while lobbying overseas administrations privately and publicly over cases concerning the death penalty and its citizens and in some cases people from other countries it also believes the most effective way of pushing for the abolition of the death penalty throughout the world is working through bodies such as the United Nations.
