I never have and never will support the death penalty. And I have no known association or relationship with any of the families of the Bali bombing victims.

But, I AM saddened that the Australian Government - both Howard and Rudd led - have remained mute over the death penalty handed down to the three Bali bombers. Australia does not support the death penalty.

The furore created in this country following the hanging execution of Ronald Ryan at Pentridge in Victoria during the 1960’s led to the banning of the death penalty in this country.

What our government should have been doing was to lobby the Indonesian Government to commute the death sentences of these butchers to life in prison. Killing them will make them martyrs among like minded religious fanatics while a life incarcerated - in a prison system regarded as barbaric by western standards - would render them non-entities in the eyes of the world and their misguided but fanatical supporters.

I don’t believe for one minute that ALL the families, relatives and loved ones of the Australian victims would support the killing of the Bali bombers. It would suprise and sadden me if that were the case.

Some will say that we shouldn’t interfere with the legal systems of other countries. But it seems those same people are happy for us to impose our views on countries which practise genital mutilation on young women and girls or that we should pull troops out of Afghanistan.

We have to be consistent in our condemnation of human rights abuses and the killing of these three men is an abuse of human rights and by not condemning the actions of the Indonesian government we are complicit in that abuse.

I have no sympathy with Samudra, Amrozi or and Mukhlas but I believe the vast majority of Australias do have principles, principles which don’t include support for the death penalty.

The execution of the Bali Bombers diminishes us all. Retribution is not all we as a civil society require as the outcome of punishment within a rational secular justice system. My heart goes out to the survivors, the families and friends of victims, all those touched by the unpardonable human carnage of the bombing. But, if we condone their execution we degrade ourselves. Horrid as their crime was, they and others, should not face the death penalty. Australians and others have died in bloody conflict to achieve and protect our freedoms and our truly inspirational mode of governance. We must protect our rights and beliefs by the rigorous extra territorial application of that which makes us what we are; tolerance. Compassion should never be mistaken for weakness. Our strength comes not from a tome but a clear and contemporary understanding of that which protects our families and ourselves from physical and economic threats. And that is a belief that as a country, as a society, we have pride in inclusion and diversity and for intolerance to defeat such a wellspring of goodness it would first require the debasement of our principles to match those of whom seek to destroy us.

My sentiments too Mike; & an interesting article in today’s ‘Daily Telegraph’....

>Australia will press for an international >moratorium on capital punishment, the government >said today, hours after three Bali bombers were >executed by firing squad.

>The federal government and opposition are united >in opposing the death penalty, although the >government has been criticised for failing to >appeal for clemency for the Bali bombers.

>Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia >would soon co-sponsor a resolution in the United >Nations General Assembly calling for a >moratorium on capital punishment.

>“We urge countries who continue to apply capital >punishment not to do so,’’ he told ABC >Television just hours after the executions in >Indonesia.

Given the nature of Indonesian politics, it not impossible the authorities there have been knowingly complicit in the creation of ‘martyrs’ .
The silence of our Federal politicians on the execution is puzzling too..