No Moratorium on Death Penalty: Foreign Ministry

Jakarta, (Antara) - Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir confirmed here Friday that Indonesia had not imposed a moratorium on the death penalty, denying a report on the issue by the Australian media. \"The Australian media misquoted this information (on the moratorium on the death penalty in Indonesia),\" Nasir said. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said his side had contacted the Indonesian ambassador and delegation that had participated in a United Nations meeting on the death penalty in Geneva. He claimed no one in the Indonesian delegation had stated that Indonesia had imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. \"We have coordinated with the director general of multilateral affairs of the foreign ministry and our ambassador in Geneva. The statement raised by the Indonesian delegation did not mention the matter,\" he noted. According to Foreign Ministry Director General Abi Hasan Kleib, there was an error in the summary of the results of the UN meeting on the death penalty. \"I have checked the issue in Geneva. It turns out that a mistake was made when the UN Secretariat created the summary of the discussion. Possibly, the \'Sydney Morning Herald\' has quoted it. We have informed the UN secretariat about the issue and asked them to revise the summary. The word \'moratorium\' should not have been mentioned when referring to the \'reinforced death\' penalty,\" Kleib remarked. Earlier, Indonesia\'s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, the United States, Desra Percaya, said the death penalty is not a universal standard in human rights. He also pointed out that the death penalty in Indonesia was not in opposition to human rights. \"The death penalty in Indonesia is not against human rights and international laws,\" he stated. (*)