Drug dealers 'should be sentenced to death'

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)