Activists urge war on drug trafficking in Aceh

Activists urge war on drug trafficking in Aceh

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

North Sumatra Police must go all out to stop drug trafficking
from the war-torn province of Aceh following last week's arrest
of three Acehnese women here with 1.5 tons of marijuana, antidrug
campaigners say.

Secretary-general of the Indonesian Anti-Narcotics Movement
(GAN) Zulkarnaen Lubis said the flow of drugs from Aceh had
reached an alarming level.

He said the cases of drugs trafficking from Aceh, uncovered by
police in North Sumatra, rose by over 100 percent, from 1,096
cases in 2001 to 2,264 last year.

"North Sumatra, being a neighbor of Aceh, is very vulnerable
to drug trafficking," Zulkarnaen said last Friday.

Marijuana grows in Aceh and drug dealers have taken advantage
of the 26-year separatist fighting there to turn Aceh into a drug
production base for neighboring regions, including Java and even
part of the country's eastern region.

Security forces and separatist rebels have allegedly received
kickbacks from the illegal business, making it difficult to put
an end to it.

Around 1.5 tons of marijuana went missing from a police
station in the North Sumatra town of Binjai last year, after
soldiers stormed it during a shoot-out with police. The clash
killed two civilians, five police officers and one soldier.

Last Wednesday, police in North Sumatra caught three Acehnese
women with 1.5 tons of marijuana, a crime Zulkarnaen said
deserved the death sentence.

"If they are found guilty of possessing the marijuana, then
based on Narcotics Law No. 22/1997, the three suspects could face
the death penalty," he said.

"To deter others, the police and legal authorities must have
the courage to sentence criminals to death," Zulkarnaen added.

Langkat Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Arman Depari in North
Sumatra agreed that the three women should receive capital
punishment if they were proven to be drug dealers.

There were two cases in which defendants were given the death
sentence in North Sumatra last year, but neither has been
executed so far.

According to Zulkarnaen, the delay sent wrong signals to drug
dealers as they would think the court was not serious. "It's no
wonder drug dealers never learn from their mistakes, the death
penalty is in fact only on paper," he said.

Another bad example was the court verdict against Asiong who
was convicted of carrying 50 kilograms of crystal amphetamine
locally known as shabu-shabu. His sentence of four years and four
months was reduced to 13 months by a court official who falsified
a court document.

Arman further said the police were still investigating the
possibility of a third party using the three women to bring the
marijuana from Aceh to North Sumatra.

"For now, we are assuming that the three suspects were not
acting on their own. There could just be couriers. We are hunting
down the main player in the case," Arman said.

He admitted that Langkat is prone to drug trafficking from
Aceh, and said that the local police were determined to uproot
the network of drug dealers there.