INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY, MAY 3, 2015 Bodies of Australians executed in Indonesia arrive home SYDNEY: Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was ‘Rebuild the relationship’ confident Australia could restore its relationship But the prime minister said yesterday that it with Indonesia despite anger over the execution of remained important for the country’s future that the two drug convicts, whose bodies reportedly relationship with Jakarta be restored. “I am confident returned home yesterday. Andrew Chan, 31, and that we will be able to rebuild the relationship,” Myuran Sukumaran, 34, were killed by firing squad Abbott said. “It’s important to Australia, it’s important on Wednesday over their role in a plot to bring hero- to Indonesia and it’s important to the wider world in to Australia from the Indonesian resort island of that Australia and Indonesia’s friendship is strong and Bali, despite international pleas to Jakarta for growing in the months and years ahead.” Australia clemency. and Indonesia are key allies in counter-terrorism Abbott said he understood the dismay and anger efforts, while Indonesia is also a significant economic over the executions but respected Indonesia’s sover- partner. eignty. “It really was terrible that these cruel and Earlier, Abbott had he described as “odd” a deci- unnecessary executions went ahead,” he told sion by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) to reporters in Sydney. “Our anger and our grief, sadly, introduce scholarships in memory of the executed is not going to bring those two young men back. pair for Indonesian students wishing to study in “The important thing now is not to do any thing that Australia. “We did this because ACU is committed to would make a difficult situation worse.” The the dignity of the human person, and that applies Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was unable equally to all human beings: victims as well as to to confirm reports that the men’s bodies were on a SYDNEY: Flower bouquets are seen in front of the home of the parents of executed Australian drug convict those who have been convicted of crimes,” Vice flight which touched down early yesterday in Andrew Chan in Sydney yesterday. — AFP Chancellor Greg Craven said. Abbott said the men Sydney. The flight was carrying Sukumaran’s parents, unable to due to a hold-up with the repatriation. of smugglers, during which time Chan had become a had met their deaths with a “kind of nobility”, but he brother and sister and Chan’s wife Febyanti Herewila, They returned on Friday. Chan and Sukumaran were Christian pastor and Sukumaran had studied art. The questioned whether that justified establishing schol- who married him on the eve of his execution. among seven foreigners and one Indonesian execut- executions have cast a shadow over Australia’s rela- arships in their name. “I know part of Christian faith is The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said ed in Indonesia in the early hours of Wednesday. The tionship with its important neighbor Indonesia, with forgiveness, but another part of Christian faith is call- Chan’s mother and brother were understood to have Australians had spent a decade in prison for their Abbott withdrawing Canberra’s ambassador to ing people to be their best selves,” he told commercial wanted to travel back with his body, but were role in masterminding the so-called ‘Bali Nine’ group Indonesia. radio late Friday.— AFP Five swept away in Australian floods ‘Off-the-scale’ deluge hit Queensland SYDNEY: Five people have been swept to their deaths by flash flood- ters. “It’s unfortunate that with events like this, we again need to ing in northeastern Australia, officials said yesterday, after what the highlight to the community the dangers of entering flooded road Queensland state premier described as an “off-the-scale” deluge. State waters. If it’s flooded, forget it,” Queensland Police Inspector Lee Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had warned that the weather bureau Jeffries said. “The reports that I have is that the roads were well- had forecast extremely heavy weather for southeast Queensland on and-truly flooded at the time and vehicles have entered flooded Friday afternoon. But in announcing the first three deaths late Friday, roads.” Southeast Queensland was lashed by the storm, which Palaszczuk said that a deluge of 277 millimeters of rain fell in the area forced the postponement of a rugby league Test between Australia where the deaths occurred in just three hours. “This is off the scale,” and New Zealand in Brisbane. Torrential rains closed roads, she said. prompted dozens of rescues and cut power to thousands of Police said four of the deaths occurred when two 4-wheel drive homes. Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the federal government vehicles were swept away from the same bridge in Caboolture, some would assist Queensland in the wake of the deadly storms. 44 kilometers north of Brisbane on Friday afternoon. In the first acci- “Obviously our thoughts and our prayers are with the families of dent, a 74-year-old man, a 39-year-old woman and a five-year-old boy those who have suffered,” he said. all died. In the second, two passengers-a 21-year-old woman and a The weather bureau said yesterday that the worst of the storm PADANG BESAR: Thai police officials measure a shallow grave in Padang Besar, Songkhla province, southern boy aged 16 - managed to escape. The body of the driver, a 49-year- was over for Queensland, and the weather was weakening as it Thailand yesterday. — AP old man, was found yesterday. moved south into New South Wales state. “Apart from still some In a third fatal incident involving vehicles being swept away, a 75- pretty wild surf conditions along the coast, apart from that the year-old man died in nearby Burpengary but police were able to res- event is pretty much over for us in southeast Queensland,” Bureau Thailand exhumes remains cue a 68-year-old woman found clinging to a tree. “We are devastated,” of Meteorology spokesman Jonty Hall told the Australian said Queensland’s Police, Fire and Emergency Minister Jo-Ann Miller as Broadcasting Corporation. New South Wales was hit by wild she revealed that authorities had received some 4,000 calls for assis- weather last month that left four people dead and caused millions of migrants at mass grave tance over a five-hour period on Friday afternoon. Almost 60 swift of dollars in damage across Sydney and surrounding areas. In that water rescues were conducted as the storm hit, she said. event, relentless gale force winds and torrential rain brought down PADANG BESAR: Thai authorities yesterday slippery 40-minute hike from the nearest road, is trees and power lines, many crushing houses and cars, with a resumed the excavation of a mass grave site in a likely to be just one of dozens in the area as the ‘Well and truly flooded’ handful of homes washed away in what was described as a once- remote patch of jungle where migrants believed to rewards of trafficking continue to outweigh the But police warned again of the dangers of driving into floodwa- in-a-decade storm.— AFP be from Myanmar and Bangladesh were held for risks of being caught. A rescue worker told AFP months by people smugglers in appalling condi- that four of the dead were “skeletons” while the tions. Eight bodies have been recovered so far from fifth died just a few days ago, seeming to indicate the abandoned camp in Sadao district, in Songkhla the camp had been in existence for some time. province, a few hundred meters from the border Tens of thousands of migrants from Myanmar, with Malaysia. mainly from the Rohingya Muslim minority but The grim discovery has once again exposed also increasingly from Bangladesh, make the dan- Thailand’s central role in a regional human traffick- gerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a well- ing trade. Four shallow holes in the dirt a short worn trafficking route often on the way south to walk behind the camp mark where the bodies were Malaysia and beyond. retrieved, an AFP reporter at the scene said, while The exodus of Rohingya-described by the UN as white ribbons tied to a few dozen bamboo poles one of the world’s most persecuted minorities-has delineated suspected new graves. The cause of the followed deadly communal unrest in western migrants’ deaths is not yet clear, but details Myanmar’s Rakhine state since 2012. Thailand says emerged yesterday of the conditions they it is cracking down on the trafficking networks on endured, in what Thailand’s police chief has its soil after revelations that government officers, described as a “virtual prison camp”. Doctors treat- police and navy officials have been involved in the ing the two sole survivors-men aged 25 and 35 — lucrative trade in humans fleeing poverty and per- told AFP their patients were suffering from a range secution. “We will go after the people responsible of ailments. (for the grave site) no matter how powerful they “Both are malnourished, have scabies and lice,” may be,” General Aek Angsananont, national police doctor Kwanwilai Chotpitchayanku said at Padang deputy commissioner, told reporters in Padang Besar hospital. “The older man could not walk, he Besar. “We care about our image, when people say had to be carried off the mountain. He hadn’t eat- we’re not doing anything about it, it’s not true it’s a en anything for two days before he was found. He national agenda.” told the translator he had a fever in the jungle for In June the United States dumped Thailand to two months.” Doctors said the men had not been the bottom, or “Tier 3”, of its list of countries fully identified but were from either Bangladesh or accused of failing to tackle modern-day slavery.