RI Embassy tried hard to save Warni

RI Embassy tried hard to save Warni

The unfortunate fate of Warni, as noted in your editorial of
June 30, 2000, is indeed tragic and The Jakarta Post deserves
credit for reminding us of the position of possibly hundreds of
thousands of Indonesians currently working in some Asian and
Middle Eastern countries. Nevertheless, the content of the
editorial seemed to be rather subjective and therefore needs to
be further clarified.

Allow me to convey to the readers the true facts that lie
behind the story. Warni was arrested in January 1998, one day
after she accidentally beat to death her employer's mother due to
the latter's harsh and intolerable treatment.

After realizing the case, the following day the Indonesian
Embassy in Riyadh immediately contacted the local authorities to
ensure that Warni received legal protection. An official of the
embassy was sent to visit Warni in Hofuf Prison, where she was
detained, and he continued visiting her there from then on,
especially when the local court condemned her to death. The
embassy had conducted repeated attempts to save Warni from the
death penalty.

On Aug. 21, 1999, the Indonesian Ambassador met with a
respected local leader in Hofuf to ask his assistance in trying
to convince the family of the victim to forgive Warni. His
efforts seemed fruitless when he informed the ambassador that the
family was unwilling to pardon her. The next attempt was to ask
for assistance from the governor of Asha/Hofuf last May and to go
through the legal procedures by hiring a local lawyer, Mr. Mansur
Al-Azmi. All these efforts were to no avail. It was on June 19,
2000 that the tragic news of the execution was reported to the
embassy by the Hofuf Police Department.

The Post is right to have mentioned that any person should
respect the law just as any foreigners do while living in
Indonesia. According to Shariah Law, which is applied in Saudi
Arabia, the only rightful party who may change the course of the
death penalty is the family of the victim. Not even the King of
Saudi Arabia could give a pardon without the consent of the
victim's family.

The embassy, in this case, did its best to approach the family
through the various channels, and it must be understood that the
most the embassy could do was to ask for the assurance of the
Saudi government that Warni would be guaranteed a fair judicial
process. Correspondingly, it should also be understood that in
such criminal cases our representatives abroad have no power in
influencing the verdict, let alone releasing the suspect.

With regard to the editorial's allegations that the embassy
has done nothing to protect its citizens, the facts indicate that
thousands of cases have so far been successfully resolved by
Indonesian representatives abroad, but they have failed to catch
the media's attention. It should be taken into account that not
all legal cases end up in our favor since the verdict depends
entirely on the nature of the case and the local judicial system.

The execution of Warni, however, is a valuable reminder to us
all that we need to improve the recruiting system and to prepare
workers to mentally adapt with new local conditions to prevent
them from experiencing "culture shock".

The big question that lingers on my mind is how could such an
innocent woman like Warni, who comes from a small village in
Java, suddenly become so aggressive to the point that she had the
courage to kill her old and physically weak employer. I do
believe that as a refined Javanese woman, Warni must have
suffered such harsh and inhumane treatment that she could not
stand the abuse which undermined her dignity as an Indonesian.

SULAIMAN ABDULMANAN

Director of Press & Information Service

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Jakarta