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11/08/2006 |
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Pope Benedict XVI appealed to the Indonesian president Friday to spare the lives of three Catholic militiamen sentenced to death in Indonesia. The appeal came in the form of a telegram sent by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, on Benedict's behalf to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and cited �humanitarian grounds.� The three militiamen, convicted of carrying out bloody attacks on Muslims during sectarian fighting in 2000, were scheduled for execution early Saturday (1615 GMT Friday) on Sulawesi island. The appeal was sent to the Indonesian president to �seek your intervention on humanitarian grounds ... in order that an act of clemency might be granted to these three Catholic citizens of your nation� and noted the Catholic church opposes the death penalty. The European Union has appealed to the Indonesian government not to carry out the punishment. The Rome-based Catholic group Sant'Egidio Community said Thursday that Manado Bishop Joseph Suwatan had signed a joint humanitarian appeal together with Ulama Muslims head K.H. Arifin Assagaf and the president of the Association of Protestant Churches, Nico Gara, to suspend the executions. Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva were sentenced in 2001 for inciting and carrying out attacks during religious violence that left some 1,000 dead among Christians and Muslims. The violence on Sulawesi had spread from the nearby Maluku islands, where around 9,000 people were killed. Few people have been brought to justice from either community. The three insisted they are innocent. Their final appeal was turned down last year.
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