AGO set to execute convicts in 2000 Poso mass killings

AGO set to execute convicts in 2000 Poso mass killings

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Attorney General's Office (AGO) will not wait much longer to
execute three men sentenced to death for sparking a major Muslim-
Christian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, in 2000.

Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh told reporters on Friday
that the three death-row convicts would soon face the firing
squad after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono refused to grant
clemency to them.

"I've been phoned by State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra
about it, but the letter (on the rejection of the clemency
request) has not arrived yet. Maybe it's still on its way,"
Abdul Rahman said.

He, however, did not say precisely when the execution would be
carried out.

Yusril said on Thursday that the President had refused to
grant amnesty to Fabianus Tibo, 60, Dominggus da Silva, 42, and
Don Marinus Riwu, 48 -- all of them Christians.

According to the law, the AGO is in charge of implementing the
executions, which will be carried out by firing squad. A firing
squad is composed of 12 police officers, six of whom fire live
bullets.

The Palu District Court sentenced the three men, all
Christians, in April 2001 to death for inciting the bloody
conflict in Poso, which left well over a thousand dead. A
government-sponsored truce was reached at the end of 2001.

The court ruled that Tibo, da Silva and Riwu were responsible
for a series of murders between May 23 and June 30, 2000.

The death sentences were upheld by the Central Sulawesi High
Court in May 2001 and the Supreme Court in November 2001.

The President's decision to reject the clemency request comes
as renewed terror threats emerged in Poso lately with the
beheadings of three Christian school girls last month, and the
shooting of two other teenaged girls last week. Both of those
attacks were perpetrated by as yet unidentified men.