Save Bali bombers, says Labor

Condemned ... Labor opposes the executions of the Bali bombers, including Ali Ghufron. Picture: Rene Nowytarger

LABOR yesterday attacked John Howard for supporting the death penalty for the Bali bombers as it launched a campaign to stop all executions in Asia.

Four days before the fifth anniversary of the attack that killed 88 Australians, Labor pledged its leadership would speak out "consistently" against the death penalty, whether for terrorists or Australian drug smugglers.

Labor has thrown the death penalty in Asia into the election campaign. Its push also comes as the Bali bombers and the Australian "Bali nine" heroin smugglers go through the final stages of their appeals on death sentences.

Labor foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland last night pledged a Labor government would start a regional campaign against state executions in countries such as China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.

Mr McClelland said Labor believed capital punishment justified "fanatical lunatics" to take lives as part of their "warped ideologies". It would object to capital punishment in Asia with "shrewd diplomatic activism".

Capital punishment in Asia, particularly involving Australian nationals on drug charges in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, has caused major diplomatic rifts and been a point of hot political debate in Australia.

In a prepared speech released last night, Mr McClelland criticised the Prime Minister for supporting "the executions of the perpetrators of the Bali bombings, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein", while continuing to state that "Australia opposed capital punishment".

Mr McClelland said Labor would be consistent in its public comments on capital punishment.

He said Mr Howard`s contradictory attitude to the death penalty was highlighted when Bali bomber Amrozi bin Nurhasyim was condemned to death in 2005, about the time young Australian Tuong Van Nguyen was executed in Singapore for drug offences.

Mr Howard did not criticise the death penalty for the Bali bombers but the Australian Government unsuccessfully campaigned to stop the execution of Nguyen.

If elected, a Rudd Labor government would form a regional coalition with the Asian nations that have abolished the death penalty - Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, East Timor and The Philippines.

The Coalition would seek to pressure the 14 Asian countries with the death penalty to cut the number of crimes attracting capital punishment, abolishing mandatory death sentences and releasing figures on the number of executions.

Mr McClelland said 80 per cent of the world`s "known executions" were in Asia. "Labor believes that supporting executions - even by a nation state - gives justification to all kinds of fanatical lunatics to take the lives of others in pursuit of their warped ideologies," he said in a speech to the Wentworth Human Rights Forum in Sydney last night. "That is why, at the highest levels Australia`s public comments about the death penalty must be consistent with policy.

"This is especially the case if we are going to tactfully and successfully drive a regional abolitionist movement.

"Labor in government will initiate a regional coalition against the death penalty by drawing abolitionist states together to look for effective ways to encourage other regional states towards abolition. Labor has a fundamental objection to the death penalty and its abolition is a cause that justifies shrewd diplomatic activism."

Mr McClelland said executions in Asia were an enormous concern for Australia and "places our nationals at risk of being executed in neighbouring countries".

"It also reflects badly on our capacity to improve human rights in our region and advance the cause of universal abolition," he said.

Mr McClelland said Australia`s international reputation has suffered a decade of decline "in no small part due to the Howard Government`s unsophisticated and politically convenient approach to applying human rights standards.

"It`s well and truly time to regain our nation`s reputation as a good international citizen and that is precisely what you will get from Kevin Rudd and Labor," he said.