Drug dealers 'should be sentenced to death'

JAKARTA (JP): In a fresh campaign against increasing drug trafficking in the city, Governor Sutiyoso aired on Friday the importance of implementing the death penalty for drug dealers.

"It's not easy to reduce drug trafficking in the city as drug dealers only get light punishment," Sutiyoso told reporters during a visit to Kampung Bali subdistrict, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

Kampung Bali has been the at the center of public attention since its residents have been actively involved in the city's war against drugs.

The governor said Indonesia could learn from the neighboring countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia, which carry out the death penalty for drug dealers.

A similar suggestion was aired by former spokesman for the National Police Headquarters Brig. Gen. Togar M. Sianipar last August, who called for the death penalty for drug offenders.

"Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Japan sentence drug traffickers and dealers to death. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, drug dealers get out of jail within months," Togar said.

In the absence of a severe sentence for drug traffickers, Sutiyoso, however, was confident that the crime could be reduced with the people's active participation in battling the drug dealers.

He renewed his call that residents of Jakarta should join the war against drug traffickers, saying that drugs had claimed even children as victims.

"I'm very concerned that the traffickers have reached elementary school students here," he said.

The 1997 Law on Narcotics carries the death penalty for convicted drug dealers. But in the past two years, no convicted dealers have received the death sentence.

Many people believed that the light sentences were handed down because of collusion between the prosecutors, the judges and the lawyers who were specially appointed by "the mafia boss" of the drug dealer defendants.

Several prisoners convicted of drug dealing easily escaped from the Salemba penitentiary in Central Jakarta earlier this year.

However Sutiyoso hailed the Kampung Bali residents on Friday for their initiatives in declaring war against drug traffickers. The suit was then followed by other residents in the city.

"Keep fighting against drug dealers. If you notice that police officers release the drug dealers that you have arrested, just let me know. I will report it to the police chief," he said.

He said the public could send letters containing information about the police officers to P.O. Box 008.

Kampung Bali subdistrict head Siswanto said the residents had arrested 25 suspected drug dealers and users since the first declaration of the war against drugs in July this year.

"Unfortunately, many of the suspects were released by the police because of a lack of evidence," Siswanto said.

He said his office recorded that 87 residents are drug addicts and needed medical treatment.

He said only five of the victims were now in a drug rehabilitation center but the remaining 82 residents have yet to be treated as they are poor.

Sutiyoso promised to help pay the medical bills of the 82 drug victims. (jun)