By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Emotional scenes unfolded near a tightly guarded Indonesian penal island Tuesday as nine death row inmates were visited by their families for what could be the last time before they face a firing squad.
In the midst of the confusion and tension at Wijayapura Port, Cilacap town, the sister of Australian drug convict Myuran Sukumaran, 34, broke into tears and suddenly collapsed, Detik.com reported.
As a crowd of local and foreign journalists rushed to witness and capture the moment, officers with sniffer dogs tried to block them.
More than a thousand army and police officers stood guard in the area surrounding Nusa Kambangan as religious counselors made their way to attend to the inmates.
Twelve ambulances transported nine coffins prepared by a local mortician, who had crafted crosses stenciled with the date 29.04.2015 for the Christians among the group, to the island, according to the website.
A lawyer for the two Australian “Bali Nine” ringleaders showed four paintings that Sukumaran – whose last wish was to paint until his execution -- had worked on in his isolation cell.
Among the four were two self-portraits, an image of a red and white Indonesian flag with streaks of blood and one of a heart with the signatures of all nine inmates.
"This picture of the heart means one feeling, one emotion [of death row inmates] in love," Tribunnews.om quoted Todung Mulya Lubis as saying.
The back of the painting’s canvas had inscriptions by some of the condemned.
"Jesus always love us until in the eternal life," wrote Filipina Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, a single mother of two sons who was seeking work in Malaysia as a maid when she was captured in Indonesia for allegedly smuggling heroin.
"God bless Indonesia" was the message of Nigerian Okwudili Oyatanze.
Police again intervened when journalists took a letter from the Indonesian girlfriend of Nigerian Raheem Agbaje Salami for reporting.
In a hand-written letter in English, Angela called her boyfriend a “good guy” and requested clemency from President Joko Widodo and all Indonesian people.
"I really love my boyfriend, please give him a second chance to live," wrote Angela, according to Suara Pembaharuan newspaper.
As midnight approached at Wijayapura Port, police closed access roads while army personnel across the dock clutched their weapons. Officials tasked with bathing the bodies of the deceased were permitted to travel to Nusa Kambangan.
Detik.com reported that some of the inmates' families waited at Sodong Port on Nusa Kambangan for their loved one's bodies.
The lawyer of Indonesian Zainal Abidin, Ade Yuliana, said after visiting his client, “the atmosphere there [Nusa Kambangan] is more gripping than yesterday because now it's been closed."
He told Kompas.com that police had tightened security, and the atmosphere became increasingly grim as the sentenced took to prayer.
The impending executions have drawn protests from the governments of the inmate’s countries, the European Union and the United Nations.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop are considering all possibilities including recalling the ambassador to Indonesia.
French President Francois Hollande had warned of diplomatic consequences, but the execution of Frenchman Serge Areski Atlaoui has since been delayed as he filed an appeal at the Administrative Court before the preparations.
Widodo has adopted a tough stance on drug traffickers, denying clemency while Indonesia faces a “drug emergency.”
The death penalty was resumed in 2013 after a five-year gap, and six drug offenders -- including five foreigners -- were executed in January despite diplomatic pleas. The move led the Netherlands and Brazil – which again has a national, who claims to be mentally ill, on Nusa Kambangan -- to withdraw their ambassadors.
The inmates set to be executed after receiving 72-hour notices Saturday include: Martin Anderson from Ghana, Zainal Abidin from Indonesia, Rodrigo Gularte (Brazil), Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso (the Philippines), Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran (Australia), and Okwudili Oyatanze, Sylvester Obiekwe Nwolise and Raheem Agbajee Salami (Nigeria, although Salami is travelling on a Spanish passport).
