It's not a massage and there is no happy ending either!

Sometime soon, on a field or a beach in Central Java three men will be tied to stakes, hooded and a sword will fall, the signal to extinguish their hateful existences.

Despite the fact that the Attorney Generals Office in Jakarta says it will be “in the early part of November, my money is on the fact that the whole affair has been a smoke and mirrors production and they will in fact be “topped” around lunchtime tomorrow or Friday.

Executing the Bali Bombers “early” will ensure that the retaliation attacks that were promised will be caught “left footed” and the police, in a further attempt to maintain civil order can quietly send the bodies by helicopter to the home villages of the three, thus eliminating a martyr’s protest as would have happened if the coffins had been transported by road.

My personal feeling on the death penalty is mixed. Iin the USA, where injustice has been discovered many years after an execution has taken place has left many lawmakers with a guilty conscience and has provoked widespread protest regarding the use of this judicial murder. Accordingly I rarely approve of this ultimate punishment, but, I am prepared to make exceptions. 

In the case of the Bali Bombers, I am of the opinion that it is perhaps correct that they should suffer as they made those involved in the carnage of Bali suffer.

And suffer they will.

This is no lethal injection with the recipient falling asleep quietly on a hospital bed, this is full on retributive justice.  Although authorised to deliver the “coup de grace” with a single shot to the head, it is unlikely that this will take place(if at all) for many minutes after the sound of gunfire and the smell of cordite have drifted away. 

Instead, if the current method is applied, there will be up to seven or ten minutes of gasping and groaning as their blood seeps out - three holes on on each of three punctured hearts - onto the earth or sand on Nusa Kambangan Island.

They will be escorted from their jail cells, given a medical check (the need for which eludes me, is it to prove that they were alive before being shot), chained and asked for any last wishes.

The last wish routine, while honorable is a strange ceremony when applied to these three individuals who did not grant the same offer to any of their 202 victims.

Shortly afterwards, three separate trucks will take the men to the execution site where they will be secured to their “crosses” (ah the irony) where they can choose to die kneeling, sitting or standing on their feet.

It has been reported that at this point, most of the doomed loose the bravado which they may have chosen to display during the time incarcerated leading up to this moment. The last minutes on earth of many is a mixture of apology, screaming, crying, sweating, urinating, shaking in terror and fear.

I somehow hope that the three men in question suffer all of the above. They at least will be aware that they only have minutes to live, their mortality facing them like a runaway train rather than the unexpected last moments which most others endure. 

During this time, the prosecutor will read the formal letter of execution and have official officials place three hoods on the heads of three cowards. Targets shall also be placed over the as yet functioning hearts, presumably not with “Smiley Faces” which say “Aim Here"

Three  Imam’s , one for each of the condemned will be at hand, a doctor, an officer in charge of the execution, the prison and police officials who transported the men and thirty six Kopasus or Brimob members, thirty six rifles, twenty seven blank rounds of ammunition, nine live rounds.........

And a sword!

It will be comforting for the three to know that each will have a team of twelve marksmen to aid them on their way to the hereafter, within these teams only three in each team will have live rounds in their rifles, these guns being selected at random by each individual from a selection laid out at the killing field or beach.

Behind their hoods, standing between fifteen to thirty feet away, they will here the soft crunch of military footwear on grass and shrubs or sand and seashells, moment’s of quiet punctuated only by the commanders instructions to the squads, various clicks as the weapons are moved from the safety position to the armed position and presumably, the only other sounds will be the wind in the tree’s or the swell of the sea on the beach and whatever prayers the three are chanting.Strangely different from the ruptured eardrums and ultimate ending of life that their victims experienced!

There is no shouted signal to fire, the commanders sword is raised in silence and dropped in silence. Indonesian law states that if the prisoners do not succumb to the initial volley, the commander is required to deliver what is known as an Amnesty Shot to the head, but, again, according to recent reports this is now uncommon.

It is my honest hope that this action, despite the extinguishing of three less than honourable lifes, brings closure to many and offers those who wish to emulate the Bali Bombers food for thought.

Oh, and by the way, there will be virgins waiting for you guys!

Footnote: As the Bali bombers approach the end of their lives their angry rhetoric has increased with a letter from all three urging their Muslim brotherhood to "claim war and kill" everyone involved in their executions, including the Indonesian President. 

It says that if Allah destines them to die from the bullets of police then it will be a savage action. 

"To all Islamic people, especially Mujahidin wherever they are, it is your obligation to claim war and kill the persons involved in the execution, like Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, (the President) Jusuf Kalla,(vice-president) Andi Mattalatta (Justice Minister), Hendarman Supandji (AG), AH Ritonga (special crimes prosecutor), all the Judges and prosecutors, Hindus, Kaffir and hypocrite Christians and all the execution team, American's slaves etc," the letter says. 

They further call for all supporters of their execution to also be killed. 

And they say that for Mujahidin everywhere, including Osama bin Laden, to "get revenge, blood with blood, life with life". 

They ask their supporters to pray that their deaths will be as martyrs. 

As I mentioned before, I pray (to the non existent god that I do not worship) that the execution of these individuals will somehow diminish this level of hatred within Indonesia!