The front page story in the Oct. 13 edition of The Jakarta Post was one of pain. The pain of the normally peaceful Balinese, with their natural disposition to tolerance and their warm spirit so many of us have had the pleasure of experiencing, is clear and their desire for the process of justice to be completed as laid down by the law entirely understandable.

My own country, which has just suffered the horror of terrorists, abandoned the death penalty many years ago. For such evil maybe it should be brought back.

But the Balinese people's pain has turned to anger because of governmental procrastination. The fact that these terrorists have had their just desserts delayed because they have appealed for clemency is unforgivable, coming as the announcement does immediately after a similar, if fortunately less murderous, series of events as the 2002 Bali bombings.

The bombers not only kill people, they are killing their livelihoods and perhaps even worse they are killing Bali itself.

CHRISTOPHER R MCRAE Jakarta