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