National News - January 14, 2008
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The execution of Indonesian maid Yanti Sukardi by Saudi Arabian authorities Friday was proof that the Indonesian government had failed to protect its migrant workers, the Migrant Care said Sunday.
"This is a failure. The government should have organized high-level diplomacy between country leaders when ministers or their subordinate officials failed to protect the migrant worker from the death sentence," Anis told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Sunday.
She said Yanti's execution was another example of the unfairness of Saudi authorities in dealing with Indonesian migrant workers, pointing to the lack of legal action to bring justice to the employers of the late Siti Tarwiyah and Susmiyati, who died after a family member beat them, accusing them of witchcraft.
Anis said the Indonesian Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the central government, i.e. the Foreign Ministry and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry should have prioritized advocacy for cases with death sentences.
"This is shocking, saddening news. We strongly criticize the execution of Yanti Sukardi. We had never heard anything of her trial process until the execution took place," she said.
Yanti was convicted of killing her employer Aisha Al Makhaled by suffocating the latter with a pillow and then stealing her jewelry, in the southern province of Asir. The incident allegedly took place in late June 2006.
Yanti was executed by a firing squad and not by beheading as first reported.
Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo said the Indonesian Consulate General in Saudi Arabia had worked closely with Yanti through the trial process leading up to her execution.
"We were with her since the investigation process to her first trial until prior to her execution," he told Detik.com news portal on Saturday.
"Officials from our consulate general in Jeddah also met Yanti to inquire her last will and testament."
Kristiarto said Yanti's family in Cianjur, West Java had been informed of her death. She was buried in Saudi Arabia as she did not request for burial in Indonesia. (wda)
