On the one-year anniversary of the of execution of Bali Nine Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, some chilling last words have been revealed.
Before the firing squad ended his life, Sukumaran imparted his final thoughts with spiritual advisor, Reverend Christie Buckingham.
“Do me a favor,” News Corp Australia quoted him as telling her.
“Ask the question in a year’s time, has this made any difference? Has it made any difference in Indonesia? Has it made any difference to the way Australians feel about the death penalty? Ask this question in one year, in five years and in 10 years. Ask it to yourself, ask it to those around you and ask it to anyone who will listen. Has this made a difference either way? Has this made a difference?”
And perhaps as just a chilling revelation as Sukumaran’s last questions is that several members of the firing squad approached Buckingham to seek forgiveness, she says.
“He pulled his mask down and said ‘Maaf, Maaf’ (the Indonesian word for sorry).
“I just said Myu forgives you, I forgive you, God forgives you.”
Sukumaran and Chan were executed along with six others a year ago from today. The Bali Nine ringleaders were handed down the death penalty for a 2005 trafficking plot to smuggle heroin out of Bali into Australia. After a lengthy appeals process and many attempts to get clemency, they faced the firing squad, despite wide reports of their extensive rehabilitation efforts and progress.
And while execution talk has significantly slowed in the last year, reports are saying a new round of executions could come soon. An Indonesian delegate was booed at a UN meeting after defending the use of the death penalty on drug offenders earlier this month, but Indonesia seems resolute to keep executions coming.
But in response to Sukumaran, it seems even after the executions were meant to be such a great deterrent, drugs remain rampant throughout Bali and Indonesia. There are quite regular reports of both users and dealers being arrested and still stories of drug trading being run from inside Indonesia’s jails.
