Feb. 4
INDONESIA:
Last hope gone in bid to save Bali 9 pair
The last legal hope for 2 Australian drug smugglers on death row in Bali has
been dashed after an applications for a 2nd judicial review of their cases was
denied.
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were sentenced to death for their part in
organising the 2005 Bali 9 heroin trafficking attempt.
The pair's official applications for a 2nd review of their death sentences were
rejected after being filed with Denpasar District Court officials last week.
The court's spokesman, Hasoloan Sianturi, told ABC News the application was to
be considered by the chairman in reference to Indonesian law and in
consultation with the country's Supreme Court.
The Indonesian government have said the pair are not eligible for any more case
reviews or appeals.
Last ditch application to prevent executions
Bali court officials earlier visited Kerobokan Prison to help the 2 Australian
drug smugglers file their appeal against the death penalty.
Chan and Sukumaran, who were both denied presidential pardons, are among a
group of drug smugglers who could face a firing squad within weeks.
The application came after the grandmother of Sukumaran made a desperate plea
at a vigil in Sydney, urging president Joko Widodo to intervene to save his
life.
Attorney-general Muhammad Prasetyo said on Thursday that Sukumaran and Chan
were not eligible for a review because they had already had one.
Earlier on Friday, the pair's lawyer, Todung Mulya Lubis, said they would file
the application "soon".
It has been more than a week since news emerged that Chan was denied a
presidential pardon.
As Sukumaran, a fellow organiser of the Bali 9 heroin trafficking group, had
already been denied clemency, the 2 Australians were put up for execution when
the government was ready.
The men have exhausted all legal avenues for appeal and a judicial review at
the supreme court level failed to overturn their sentences.
On Wednesday, Indonesian president Joko Widodo said he would not grant clemency
to the 2 men.
Mr Lubis conceded the executions were lawful, but said they would still try to
get another review.
"Yes, there is law to base this on but we must also respect human rights," Mr
Lubis said.
A high ranking official from the attorney-general's office told ABC News that
no decision had been made about who on death row would be executed next
Grandmother pleads for Sukumaran's life
Meanwhile, about 1,000 people turned out in Sydney's Martin Place last night as
part of an emotional display of support for Sukumaran and Chan.
Edith Visvanathan, Sukumaran's grandmother, thanked the crowd but said she felt
"sad and very, very weak".
"I come here to ask pardon from the president, the president and the people of
Indonesia, to forgive my grandson and give him a 2nd chance," she said.
"I don't ask him to come home. I only ask him to give him life and let him do
something in the prison.
"Don't kill him, please don't kill him."
Statements were read on behalf of both Chan and Sukumaran. Sukumaran's
statement said that whatever happened, they were now good men.
The 2 Australians have been in jail in Indonesia since 2005 after they were
arrested, with 7 others, while trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made a public appeal for the men's lives.
He said the men "deserve mercy" and were "reformed characters".
Earlier, 6 people were executed after being denied clemency a month earlier and
given 3 days' notice of their deaths.
(source: Yahoo News)
********************
UK 'hopeful' of saving Briton on death row ---- Britain's foreign minister is
hopeful of saving a drug-smuggling grandmother on death row in Bali.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says he is "hopeful" that a British
grandmother on death row in an Indonesian prison could escape execution.
Lindsay Sandiford, 57, is seeking to have her death sentence for smuggling 4.8
kilograms of cocaine into the resort island of Bali overturned.
"I'm hopeful that we still have a process and it's premature to talk about the
sentence being carried out," Hammond told reporters after talks with his
Indonesian counterpart, Retno Marsudi, in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Hammond said he told Retno that Britain opposed the death penalty "in all
cases" and was providing support for Sandiford.
"There are specific limits to how we operate and what kind of support that we
can offer," he said.
Attorney-General Muhammad Prasetyo said over the weekend that authorities were
preparing a new series of executions, after President Joko Widodo rejected
clemency requests for 11 convicts on death row, including 8 drug traffickers, 2
of them from Australia.
The others include one each from Brazil, France, Ghana, the Philippines and
Nigeria.
No timeframe was given for the executions.
Barney Greenway, the frontman of British grindcore band Napalm Death, of which
Joko is a fan, has appealed to the president to spare Sandiford, and
Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the Independent newspaper
reported.
"To my mind, your election platform promises of moves toward a more egalitarian
civic structure means protection at all levels - and capital punishment can
only take things backwards in that respect," Greenway said in his letter to
Joko.
Joko has ruled out mercy for drug traffickers and has defended the death
penalty, saying the country's drug problem has reached an emergency level.
The government said drug abuse kills an average of 40 people in Indonesia each
day, and estimated number of drug addicts will reach 5.8 million people this
year.
There are more than 100 people on death row in Indonesian prisons, mostly for
drug offences.
(source: Yahoo News)
********************************
Indonesian courts reject Bali 9 judicial review -- Courts turn down application
for review into cases of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who face
execution
2 Australians convicted of drug trafficking in Indonesia have lost their final
chance to appeal against their death sentences after an Indonesian district
court rejected an application for their cases to be reviewed.
Lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran applied on Friday for a 2nd
judicial review of their case, examining past errors of the law and their
transformation after more than a decade in jail.
Hasoloan Sianturi, the Denpasar district court spokesman, told reporters the
application had been rejected.
The spokesman said after considering the documents put forward for a judicial
review, known as a PK, neither man's application could be accepted.
"The documents of that PK will not be sent to the supreme court," he told
reporters in Bali.
Chan and Sukumaran were 2 of 9 Australians - known as the Bali 9 - convicted in
Indonesia of heroin trafficking in 2005.
Indonesia's minister of law and human rights said a new regulation to be issued
in a few months would allow multiple judicial reviews but until then only 1 was
permitted, Fairfax reported.
Sukumaran and Chan now face execution by firing squad with as little as 72
hours' notice.
Last week the attorney general, HM Prasetyo, said the two Australians would be
among the next group of convicted people to be executed.
Planning for the executions did not pause while the PK was being considered but
by late Tuesday at least, no date had been set, a spokesman told Guardian
Australia. The preferred location remains the island of Nusakambangan, off the
coast of central Java, where 6 executions were carried out in January.
Prasetyo told media in Jakarta some embassies had been notified that their
citizens faced imminent execution but would not say which ones.
The Australian embassy in Jakarta told Guardian Australia it would not be
commenting on the matter. The office of prime minister Tony Abbott has been
contacted for comment.
Sukumaran and Chan have had multiple visitors at Kerobokan prison over recent
days, including family, friends and supporters. Their legal team and
campaigners have focused on the lengths to which the 2 men have been
rehabilitated, among other legal arguments.
Sukumaran runs an art studio and classes for past and present inmates inside
the prison.
"The authorities in the jail have had such success in rehabilitating its
prisoners, now it would be real shame to end that rather than celebrate that,"
said Australian artist Matt Sleeth outside the prison on Tuesday.
A variety of groups and people have come out in support to plead for mercy for
the 2 men, including current and former Indonesian judges who have spoken out
about the uselessness of the death penalty as a deterrent. Maruarar Siahaan,
who sat on the 2007 constitutional court panel to hear the Australian men's
appeal, blamed poor enforcement for continuing drug crime.
"When the opportunity to escape detection is high, the threat of the death
penalty won't scare those who are in business of drugs," he told AAP.
President Joko Widodo, who rejected both clemency appeals, has vowed to take a
hard line against drugs smugglers in Indonesia.
Puri Kencana Putri, head of research at Indonesian human rights group KontraS,
criticised the decision.
"Both Andrew and Myuran have a right to get proper access to justice, after
more than a decade behind bars and the willingness to rectify their wrongdoing
in the past," she told Guardian Australia.
"By executing them in the near future, I'm sure the government will never
reduce the rate of drug-related offences in Indonesia."
The widespread idea of the death penalty "demonstrated a profound signal that
the Indonesian government doesn't have any roadmap enough to resolve the root
cause of the illicit drug trade in Indonesia," the statement continued.
She said there was no transparency or evaluation of the Indonesian narcotics
agency (BNN), which was established in 2002.
(source: The Guardian)
************************
Indon spends big to save deathrow citizens
The Indonesian government is spending millions of dollars on lawyers and to
victims' families to get its citizens off death row in foreign countries
despite ramping up its own rate of execution.
Even though President Joko Widodo has sent five foreigners and one Indonesian
to the firing squad for drug offences so far in 2015 with Australians Andrew
Chan and Myuran Sukumaran next on the list, Indonesia continues to pay for
leniency in other countries.
A taskforce was established by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
following the public decapitation of Rutati binti Satubi for stabbing her
employer to death in Saudi Arabia in 2011.
More than 60 Indonesian workers in China, Iran, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia have
been assisted by the taskforce according to Amnesty International. The head of
Melbourne University's Centre for Indonesian Law says the government often pays
to have sentences commuted.
"The Indonesia government spends millions of dollars to hire lawyers and in
some cases, in Saudi Arabia, pay blood money where it is permitted under
Islamic legal systems to relatives of the murder victim to enable sentences to
be commuted," Professor Tim Lindsey says.
But Prof Lindsey says the death sentence at home for drug offenders, including
foreign nationals, remains popular among Indonesians at the voting booth.
"It is really ironic that Indonesia should be this huge push to execute more
people while at the same time spending millions of dollars to get its own
citizens off," Prof Lindsey said.
"We've had the Netherlands and Brazil withdraw their ambassadors without barely
a blink from Indonesia. That assists Jokowi being seen as a resolute tough guy
and that helps him in his big challenge of trying to build a coalition in the
legislature, which he does not yet have.
"He will not be able to govern effectively until he does get that coalition.
Being seen to be weak in these areas will make him a target."
In 1 case, the Indonesian government paid $A2.1 million to stop the execution
of domestic worker Satinah binti Jumadi Ahmad in Saudi Arabia after she was
convicted of murdering her employer's wife and stealing money.
Former chairman of Indonesia's constitutional court Jimly Asshiddiqie has said
Jakarta's position is inconsistent and out of date.
"It's not right that when our workers abroad are facing the death penalty we
protest against it, but when foreigners are about to face death here, we
don't," he told AAP in January.
Mr Lindsey said the case of migrant workers on death row in foreign countries
is often seen in an entirely different light from drug offenders.
"There is a lot of sympathy for these, generally, women," Mr Lindsey said.
"Drug offenders are classed as a type of mass murderer in public perception
along with terrorists, so there is a clear policy path which is to avoid the
death penalty for most offences except mass murderers, drug offenders and
terrorists."
(source: Herald Sun)
*********
Death sentences may sink RI's international image
Indonesia's influence in the international community may be overshadowed by the
scorn it is getting for the recent executions of drug traffickers, human rights
activists say.
"Indonesia will find it difficult to bargain or to negotiate with other
countries, especially if it is about human rights cases," the Indonesian
representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights
(AICHR), Rafendi Djamin, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
In January, Indonesia shot 6 drug convicts dead, including convicts from the
Netherlands and Brazil. Brazil and the Netherlands have recalled their envoys
temporarily from Indonesia to protest the killing of their citizens.
Regarding the diplomatic fall-out, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi
said that Indonesia has "never been hostile" to other countries and it would
maintain communications with those countries. Ricky Gunawan, the director of
the Community Legal Aid Group (LBH Masyarakat), said that the Netherlands has
provided assistance to Indonesia for a long time, especially to improve law
enforcement.
"Netherlands has supported Indonesia in improving its justice system by
providing training programs for its law enforcers. The fact that its citizen
was executed may make them withdraw the support," Ricky said.
He added that the relationship between Indonesia and Brazil was also very good,
as the 2 countries had initiated a "from South to South" partnership.
Currently as many as 35 people from 15 countries are waiting to be executed
after being convicted of drug trafficking. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has
refused to grant clemency to eight drug traffickers. They include 1 each from
Brazil, France, Ghana, the Philippines and Nigeria and 2 from Australia.
Rafendi predicted that the number of countries that will withdraw their support
from Indonesia will increase if the government maintains the death penalty.
Besides losing more allies in the international community, Indonesia's
negotiations attempting to free its citizens from death sentences in Malaysia
and Saudi Arabia may be rejected as well. "How can we ask for support from
other countries to free our citizens from the death penalty, if we still punish
people with the same sentence?" said Rafendi, who is also the executive
director of the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG).
It has been reported that as many as 380 migrant workers from Indonesia are
currently on trial and may face capital punishment in China, Malaysia and Saudi
Arabia. Of that number, 17 of them have been convicted and sentenced to death.
On Tuesday, Migrant Care Director Executive, Anis Hidayah, said that the
negotiations to free the migrant workers was being hampered as Indonesia was
still imposing the death sentence at home.
Both Ricky and Rafendi expressed disappointment that Indonesia has implemented
a double standard in its strategy to protect human rights. "In the
international community, Indonesia seems to respect human rights. In contrast,
Indonesia violates human rights by imposing the death penalty. This is so
embarrassing," Rafendi said.Indonesia ratified the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2005. One of articles in the covenant
stipulated that every state must protect the right to life.
(source: Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post)
******************
'Bali 2' executions could set back Australia-Indonesia relations
It now seems almost inevitable that 2 Australians, drug smugglers Andrew Chan
and Myuran Sukumaran, will soon be executed in Indonesia. If this does happen,
there will be public protests in Australia. Some of these protests will be
directed against the death penalty as a concept; others will be directed at
Indonesia's use of that penalty in these 2 cases.
The Australian government will also protest. Canberra might even withdraw Paul
Grigson, Australia's newly appointed Ambassador to Indonesia - assuming Grigson
has actually arrived in Jakarta when the executions take place. This would
follow the lead of the Dutch and Brazilian governments, which both recalled
their ambassadors to Indonesia after 2 of their citizens were executed last
month.
But such protests will have little traction in Indonesia, either with the
government or the Indonesian public.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has shown that he has no sympathy for drug
smugglers, whether they are Australian, Indonesian or any other nationality. He
does not have the same warmth towards Australia exhibited by his predecessor,
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He has worked hard to project a tough image in his
foreign policy to counteract his opponents portraying him as soft and
inexperienced in international affairs.
What evidence we have shows that Indonesian public opinion supports the death
penalty. Even in Australia, a recent poll found that a majority of respondents
supported the death penalty in these 2 cases.
Eddy Bayuni, senior editor of the Jakarta Post, wrote recently:
The foreign leaders' interventions ... may even have done a disservice to the
abolitionists' cause. The executions have now been turned into a question of
Indonesia's national pride with accusations flying about the West imposing its
human rights values on us. But, as the saying goes, the harder they push, the
stronger Indonesia pushes back.
Recent tensions
The potential execution of 2 Australian citizens is only the most recent -
albeit the most tragic - instance of recent tension in the Australia-Indonesia
relationship. There have been 2 others.
In November 2014, Australia's then-immigration minister, Scott Morrison,
announced that any asylum seekers registering with the United Nations in
Indonesia after June 2014 would not be considered for resettlement in
Australia. Morrison asserted that this move "should reduce the movement of
asylum seekers to Indonesia", thus implying benefit for Indonesia as well as
for Australia. He also said that the Indonesian government had been briefed on
the policy change, though not whether Jakarta supported it.
However, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi was more forthright. She
expressed regret at what she described as a "unilateral" policy decision,
taking into account only Australia's interests in the issue. She also called in
Australia's then-ambassador, Greg Moriarty, for a ritual dressing-down.
This development did not attract much public attention in Indonesia at the
time. But it was nonetheless important for confirming that the new Indonesian
government was not prepared - at least publicly - to accept what it saw as
off-handed treatment by Australia.
A 2nd current issue in the relationship dates back to early November 2014. The
Indonesian government announced that visa-free entry to Indonesia would be
granted to nationals of 5 countries, including Australia. The move was aimed at
increasing the number of tourists visiting Indonesia and thus boosting the
Indonesian economy.
In late January, the Indonesian government reversed part of that decision:
Australians would now not be getting visa-free entry. The reasons for this
change were not made clear.
Statements from two Indonesian ministers hinted that the reversal was made
because Australia was not prepared to reciprocate with visa-free entry for
Indonesians. But there should never have been any expectation of such
reciprocity: Australia requires visas of all international visitors except New
Zealanders. Deviating from this policy for Indonesians would have been
politically impossible, even if there had been a governmental desire to do so.
More likely is the explanation given by a "high-ranking ministry official", who
indicated that "political reasons" were behind the decision. The likely
political reasons? Morrison???s announcement on asylum seekers and Australian
reactions to the death penalties for Chan and Sukumaran.
How might the executions impact relations?
Do these developments indicate we are in for another dive in
Australia-Indonesia relations?
The visa issue is symbolic but of little real importance. The asylum seeker
issue remains a difficult one, but Morrison's announcement did not represent a
new approach to the issue. He simply confirmed to Indonesians that the
Australian government is unhelpfully fixated on the matter.
But there is something different and important about the Chan and Sukumaran
cases, which has been absent in all other recent controversies in the bilateral
relationship: that 2 Australians' lives are at stake. On Australia Day,
prominent lawyer Greg Barns wrote:
If Australia's relationship with Indonesia suffers because we want our
neighbour to end state-sanctioned murder in the form of the death penalty, then
so be it.
As an opponent of the death penalty, I agree with Barnes. This issue demands to
be addressed frankly and will be more of a challenge than any other in the
recent history of the relationship. But the impact will probably be short-term,
rather than long.
At the popular level, for a while fewer Australians might holiday in Bali. The
government-to-government relationship might be shaken but - again - this would
only be a short-term development. There will be some political jostling, but
with no major or lasting impact.
After all, regrettably, such events have occurred before in Southeast Asia,
most recently with the 2005 hanging of Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore. And they
are likely to happen again.
We must, however, be consistent. China and the United States both apply the
death penalty, and thus should also be the subject of protests from those
Australians - particularly politicians - who are abolitionists. That no
Australians are on death row in China or the US makes no difference: Chinese
and American lives are as valuable as Australian ones.
(source: The Conversation)
***************
Ex-judges unite against Jakarta executions
Another former Indonesian judge has added his voice to the chorus of criticism
of Indonesia's death penalty regime, saying the executions won't drive down
drug crime.
Maruarar Siahaan was on the constitutional court panel that heard the 2007
appeal of Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.He was one of the
dissenting judges in the 6-3 decision against saving the Bali 9 ringleaders,
who will be executed as soon as Indonesian authorities settle a date.
Now rector for the Indonesian Christian University, Dr Siahaan says drugs
remain a real danger, but the death penalty is not the answer.
'It isn't effective in law enforcement, that's a fact,' he told AAP.
'As long as there's continuing weak law enforcement, there will always be
continuing drug crime.
'When the opportunity to escape detection is high, the threat of the death
penalty won't scare those who are in business of drugs.'
Indonesia's hasty return to using the death penalty - 6 death row inmates were
killed last month and 11 more are in line - saddened Dr Siahaan.He doesn't
blame President Joko Widodo for applying Indonesia's laws as they stand, but he
argues it's time they changed.
'In the future, there's got to be an ideological platform for the state where
we follow the global trend (away from the death penalty),' he said.
'We can no longer rely on the idea that this is for a deterrent effect.'
The former judge joins Jimly Asshiddiqie, former chairman of the constitutional
court, and another former colleague, Laica Marzuki, in speaking out against the
recent executions.
Mr Joko won't give clemency to 64 death row drug offenders, believing their
executions by firing squad will dissuade others.
Lawyers for the Australians meanwhile have applied for the courts to hear a 2nd
judicial review of their case, examining past errors of the law, and their
transformation over a decade in jail.
Indonesia ended an unofficial 4-year moratorium when 5 prisoners were executed
in 2013.
(source: Sky News)
*******************************
Vigil calls for end to Indonesian executions
More than 50 people braved inclement weather to gather at Byron Bay's Main
Beach in a candlelight vigil to add their voice to the international chorus of
protests against the death penalty on Tuesday (February 3). 2 Australians,
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, along with a number of other people, are
facing imminent execution in Indonesia by firing squad.
A local activist said: 'The death penalty is state-sanctioned barbarism and we
are here to say Byron Bay does not support it for whatever reason.'
Another said: 'It's very important that as many people as possible sign the
petition because they've exhausted all legal processes, and this is our last
hope to save their lives and others in future.'
The action was initiated by Amnesty Byron as part of Amnesty International's
global campaign against the death penalty.
According to the Amnesty website: 'Indonesia has already demonstrated its
deadly intent by executing 5 foreign nationals and 1 Indonesian just after
midnight on 18 January. International condemnation followed and the Brazilian
and Dutch Ambassadors to Indonesia were recalled.
More than 140 countries have now abolished this barbaric practice and Indonesia
must join them.'
(source: echo.net.au)
***********************************
I have no sympathy for death row drug traffickers
There are few things I despise more than dealing drugs. It is a detestable
trade that ranks alongside slavery; a trade that deals in misery and
subjugation. Yet for all of that, I despise the death penalty even more.
As Australians, our attitudes to both will be sorely tested in coming weeks or
months when Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan are executed by firing squad, as
surely they will be.
For the Indonesians this is presented as a war on drugs, with the new President
pointing out that 50 Indonesians die every day because of drugs.
Joko Widodo feels that having a hard line policy on drug dealers will curb the
rising tide of drugs in his country. He may even be right.
However, it would be foolish for Australians to think that all Indonesians
agree with him. In fact his own Justice Minister does not support the death
penalty, and delicately describes it as a 'dilemma".
It would be just as foolish to think that because Sukumaran and Chan are
Australians, they should somehow be immune from the full sanction of the law in
Indonesia. That attitude smacks of a moral superiority which would be sorely
misplaced. After all, we made no clemency requests for the Bali bombers. Those
who die from drugs are just as dead as those who die in a bombing.
Nor should Indonesia alone be the focus. If we oppose the death penalty in
Indonesia we should also oppose it in Saudi Arabia, and in China, and in the
United States. In recent weeks the world witnessed the beheading of a Burmese
woman in Saudi Arabia, and the gruesome execution of a man by injection in the
US.
In all cases executions are grisly business. There is no righteous vengeance in
removing someone's head, nor in leaving a lifeless body in a pool of blood
after shooting them. Anyone who thinks executions are a noble business is sadly
deluded.
How then do we reconcile abhorrence at the drugs trade with abhorrence at the
death penalty?
Chan and Sukumaran were surely under no misapprehension about the enterprise in
which they were involved. They were shipping almost an industrial amount of
heroin. Moreover, their motivation was personal greed, irrespective of the
lives that might suffer as a result.
However, is that enough to take their lives?
Let's assume that they were convicted after the drugs had been smuggled out,
and that we knew people had died from using those drugs. Would the concept of
an "eye for an eye" be good enough cause for execution? This, ultimately, is
the question.
The difficulty with urging an "eye for an eye" - as indeed with urging capital
punishment of some as a deterrent to others - is that it amounts to state
sanctioned killing for a political purpose. This can be the only argument for
capital punishment. Vengeance is a futile exercise since it will never bring
back the wronged.
But killing others for a political purpose is exactly what terrorists do. They
kill some in the hope of cowering everyone else into submitting to their will.
Capital punishment, therefore, has the characteristics of state sanctioned
terror.
This may be fine, if you believe the role of the state is merely to compel the
obedience of its citizens. However, the role of the state has gone far beyond
that; it now educates, civilizes, and cares for its people.
In choosing to shape its citizens to make them better, the state takes on moral
obligations of its own. These obligations are inconsistent with using capital
punishment as means of deterring others, something which has no moral
foundation.
I don't believe Chan and Sukumaran deserve our sympathy, but I believe even
less that they should die to make a point to others.
(source: Commentary; Bill O'Chee----Brisbane Times)
_______________________________________________
DeathPenalty mailing list
DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu
http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty
Search the Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/deathpenalty@lists.washlaw.edu/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A free service of WashLaw
http://washlaw.edu
(785)670.1088
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
