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Indonesia activists throw rotten eggs at Saudi embassy to protest executions

Executions of citizens abroad continue to raise questions about Indonesia's hardline policies at home
Indonesia activists throw rotten eggs at Saudi embassy to protest executions

Activists threw rotten eggs at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Jakarta onFriday (Photo by Ryan Dagur)

Published: April 17, 2015 09:29 AM GMT
Updated: April 16, 2015 10:29 PM GMT

Advocates for Indonesian migrant workers staged a rally in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy in Jakarta Friday, throwing rotten eggs in protest of the recent executions of two Indonesian women in the Gulf state.

Dozens of the activists threw eggs on the ground in front of the embassy during an hour-long protest Friday.

“We do this because we think that the step taken by the government of Saudi Arabia is stinky, just like these rotten eggs,” Anis Hidayah, executive director of Jakarta-based Migrant Care, told ucanews.com during the rally. “They completely didn’t pay attention to the principles of respect for human dignity.”

Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed Karni binti Medi Tarsim, a 37-year-old woman from Brebes district in Central Java. Karni had been convicted of murdering her employer’s four-year-old daughter in 2012.

Her execution came just two days after Siti Zaenab binti Duhri Rupa, 47, was beheaded as punishment for stabbing her female employer to death in 1999.

Hidayah said many Indonesian maids working in Saudi Arabia face routine mistreatment, and claimed that Karni had effectively found herself trapped in a system that amounted to modern-day slavery.

“Many Indonesian maids work 18 hours a day, and they don’t have holidays or access to communication. Many cases faced by them are self-defense,” she said.

No officials from Saudi Arabia’s embassy met with protesters during the rally.

Sister Laurentia from the faith-based organization Friends of Humanity suggested that the government should take a serious step to solve the issue.

“Two Indonesian maids have just been executed. The government must take this seriously,” she told ucanews.com.

Wahyu Susilo, a policy analyst with Migrant Care, called on Indonesian President Joko Widodo “not to sleep” and urged him to send Saudi Arabia’s ambassador home in protest.

“For these two executions, [Widodo] hasn’t said anything yet.”

The executions of its citizens abroad continue to present an unwelcome juxtaposition for Widodo and his government, which has pursued an aggressive policy of carrying out executions for convicted drug criminals this year.

In January, six drug convicts, including foreign nationals, were executed by firing squad. Another round of executions of mostly foreigners, including two of Australia’s so-called Bali Nine drug ring, has been planned as well, though a date has not been announced.

Some rights groups say this amounts to a double standard, where Indonesia argues for mercy when its own citizens face the death penalty abroad, but takes a hardline approach domestically.

Siti Noor Laila from the National Commission on Human Rights told ucanews.com that saving Indonesian citizens abroad is becoming a serious problem for the government.

“How do we face criticisms from many countries? In fact, we execute other citizens here,” she said.

Following this week’s executions, the Indonesian government summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to express its disappointment. Rather than focusing specifically on the deaths themselves, however, Indonesia took issue with not receiving proper, prior notification that the executions were to take place.

“The Indonesian government, once again, has expressed its disappointment that Indonesian representatives in both Riyadh and Jeddah didn’t receive information about the timing of the execution of Karni binti Medi Tarsim,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

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