Indonesian Migrants Facing Death Get Legal Aid from Home
With 221 Indonesian migrant workers facing death sentences in China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, the government of Indonesia has approved a legal aid budget to assist these workers, who often do not have access to such assistance otherwise.
In July, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono formed a migrant task force to address a variety of issues involving the large number of low-income Indonesians who have emigrated to other countries, where they face alleged abuse, legal difficulties, and other barriers.
Indonesia formed the task force after an incident in which the government of Malaysia beheaded an Indonesian maid who was charged with murder without even notifying the Indonesian government, a violation of the usual diplomatic protocol.
Last month, the task force released its initial findings, leading House of Representatives deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso to call for the legal aid budget to be approved.
The task force recently met with the Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs to discuss the findings and the recommendations. There, the decision was reached to hire the full-time attorneys.
'We hope that through the appointment of these lawyers, our citizens and migrant workers who are facing legal problems will be able to go through a just legal process,' Humphrey Djemat, a spokesman for the task force, told the Jakarta Globe.
'We also hope those lawyers can protect our migrant workers and citizens to the best of their abilities so that distressing cases like those we have seen recently can be avoided in the future,' Djemat said.
'It sounds like a good step,' Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, told IPS. 'It's a positive step, let's see how it works. Let's see if the prosecutor is actually able to find some recourse for people who find themselves in those situations.'
Stork said the legal challenges for Indonesian migrants in Saudi Arabia include lack of access to attorneys as well as intrinsic problems with the court system itself.
'In Saudi Arabia, it's both. As far as I'm aware, there's not legal aid available. Even if it were, there's a serious problem with a lack of any kind of independent judiciary; having an attorney is not going to change that,' Stork said.
'People in Saudi Arabia sometimes do have attorneys, and don't get satisfaction from the courts. It's not a silver bullet. It doesn't take care of the underlying problems, but it's a good first step,' he said.
Six of those previously on death row in Saudi Arabia have escaped execution after traditional fines and compensation were paid to the families of the victims and pardons granted.
However, two cases causing the Indonesian government particular concern involve Tuti Tursilawati and Siti Zaenab, who have not been forgiven by the alleged victims' families, raising questions about whether they will be able to avoid execution.
The Indonesian House of Representatives passed a resolution asking Saudi Arabia to pardon these two workers, according to an Oct. 14 report on tempointeractive.com. Previously, President Yudhoyono sent a letter on Oct. 6 regarding the two.
The attorneys Indonesia has hired are experienced professionals, including one who previously served as a prosecutor in Saudi Arabia.
The government task force on Indonesian migrant workers recently reported that, of the 221 labourers facing capital punishment abroad, 148 of them are in Malaysia; 45 are in Saudi Arabia; and 28 are in China. These numbers are slightly different than the initial figures released last month.
Of the 148 in Malaysia, 118 are on death row for drug-trafficking offences; 28 for murder; and the rest for possession of firearms.
Of the 28 in China, all are on death row for drug trafficking.
Of the 45 in Saudi Arabia, most were charged over illegal sexual activity and alleged black magic practices.
In Saudi Arabia, black magic is considered 'haram' or prohibited. Meanwhile, black magic is a booming business in Indonesia, where people seek the help of witch doctors to address a range of problems, from personal to political.
'A lot of times what's called witchcraft is the remnant of religious magical and healing traditions. In Indonesia, there's a very rich culture that is ancient that understands the powers of human mind on a very deep level... of people who are healers who you go to in the village if you are sick, who are kind of like the lay psychologists,' Starhawk, a U.S.-based author of numerous books on contemporary earth- based spirituality, told IPS.
She argued that the powerful people in Saudi Arabia use the threat of people who practice witchcraft as a way to distract common people from 'the real problems... See, here's these people who are so scary and awful.'
'It's part of a way for a dominant religion to denigrate an indigenous religion,' Sara Amis, an Occupy Atlanta spokeswoman who practices Wicca, told IPS.
'My basic opinion is that it's religious intolerance. The same way I would view someone being put to death for being homosexual - it's bigotry,' Amis said.
Indonesian House members are expected to request China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia to release the detained Indonesian workers in their respective countries, both during a meeting of lawmakers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) taking place in Syria next month, and again at a conference for Islamic organisations scheduled for January 2012.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service