| Brazil, Netherlands recall envoys from Indonesia over execution of nationals |
Brazil and the Netherlands today recalled their ambassadors from Indonesia and expressed fury after Jakarta defied their pleas and executed six convicted drugs offenders by firing squad, including two of their citizens. Brazil says, its citizen was the first Brazilian national to be executed abroad and has warned it will damage relations with Indonesia.
Convicts from Vietnam, Malawi and one Indonesian, were also among those put to death just after midnight, the first executions carried out under new President Joko Widodo. Indonesia has tough anti-drugs laws and Widodo, who took office in October, has disappointed rights activists by voicing support for capital punishment despite his image as a reformist. |
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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