International drug trade is threatening Indonesia

By Arief M. Suditomo

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and 17 other countries cut a path toward the liberalization of trade at the November APEC meeting in Bogor. However, there is one product that doesn't need a meeting to flow freely. It is, of course, illegal drugs.

The international market for drugs isn't hampered by protectionism. As long as sellers and buyers agree on the price, the deal goes down.

Indonesians have a front row seat to watch the international drug trade. Most of the large drug cases here involve foreigners, including some staff members at a foreign embassy.

Millions of Indonesians learned about a new lethal -- but popular -- drug called Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethine) this year.

Because the non-organic drug is expensive, it is consumed mainly by upper class Indonesians. Ecstasy reportedly circulates in some fancy hang outs and at exclusive discos.

The involvement of foreign workers trafficking Ecstasy in Jakarta was uncovered in February when two American embassy personnel, two Dutch tourists and two members of Indonesian Armed Forces were arrested during a raid at the Borobudur Inter Continental Hotel.

The four foreigners were believed to have been ready to consummate a drug deal worth thousands of U.S. dollars. The police confiscated over 7,500 pills from their house in South Jakarta.

The Americans caught during the raid were Steven Bryner and Peter Karajin. Both are noncommissioned officers in the U.S. Air Force, and worked at the embassy. The Dutchmen were Leonard Yacobus and Christian Maria van den Bosch.

Bryner and Karajin were released on Feb. 17 to be tried by a military tribunal at a U.S. military base in Guam. The tribunal sentenced Steven Bryner to seven years imprisonment on Aug. 2. The Dutchmen were tried under local law at the Central Jakarta court. Van den Bosch was sentenced to three years in jail on July 16.

The massive media coverage of Ecstasy sales were pushed aside by the stories surrounding the death of Rifardi Soekarnoputro, a grandson of a former high ranking Indonesian official. He was found dead at young movie star Ria Irawan's home on Jan. 12.

According to the police, Rifardi died from an overdose of a dangerous drug. They later disclosed that the drug was Ecstasy.

No link between Rifardi's death and the arrest of the four foreigners was found. The police don't have a suspect.

Ria Irawan, who was suspected of throwing the remaining drugs away, was never detained because there was not enough evidence to link her to the young businessman's death.

While many Indonesian journalists busied themselves writing various stories about Ria Irawan's alleged involvement in Rifardi's death, the police gave them another drug case involving foreigners.

The police arrested Sae Lim Iaw, a Thai, Tham Tuck Yin, a Malaysian and Indonesian Freddy A Ting at Hotel Indonesia in Central Jakarta on May 11. They had 29 kilograms of high-grade heroin.

This was the biggest heroin bust in Indonesian history. The second largest haul was recorded seven years ago in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, when the police seized 17.7 kilograms of heroin of a similar grade.

The 17.7 kilogram heroin was taken from Kamjai Kong Thavorm, a Thai seaman. Kamjai was sentenced to death and the drug was burned.

Since January, nationals of 11 different countries have been arrested for drug-related cases, from possession to trafficking.

The most outrageous case was in October when Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital doctors extracted 103 plastic cylinders of heroin (weighing 1.2 kilograms) from the stomach of Nepalese Basu Dev Parajuli.

Basu swallowed the 103 plastic cylinders in Bangkok, Thailand. One of the cylinders may have ruptured shortly after he disembarked from the plane and Basu collapsed at the Soekarno- Hatta airport.

Airport officials thought he was having a heart attack and sent him to the hospital.

Indonesians have every right to be wary of drugs. Living so near the Golden Triangle of Thailand-Myanmar-Laos is why the inflow of drugs is so difficult to stop.

According to the annual report from Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which was published in March, Southeast Asia is a major producer of illicit drugs. Bangkok is the main point of embarkation.

The report stated that the Golden Triangle itself produces about 130 million tons of opium-based products each year.

Indonesian police believe that the large amount of heroine confiscated at Hotel Indonesia last May was due to overproduction of the drug in Thailand.

Brig. Gen. Rusdihardjo, the Chief of National Police Crime Investigation Unit, said that about 5,000 tons of heroin was produced in Thailand this year. This is far above the average annual production of 800 to 1,200 tons.

"Due to the overproduction, the producers are willing to send the heroin to other countries, including Indonesia, without any down payment," Rusdihardjo explained.

The INCB's annual report supports the police chief. It states that intense internationalization and cooperation among world's drug cartels ultimately leave no country unaffected by drug trafficking.

Indonesia was barely mentioned in the latest worldwide review on illegal drug use by the INCB because its reported drug abuse rate is much lower than in other parts of the world.

Sirad Atmojo, who belongs to the 13-member INCB board, said that Indonesia's invisibility in the report is something to be proud of.

Brig. Gen. (ret) Tony Sidharta, a senior chief at the Agency for the Prevention of the Use of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances, said that compared to other Asian countries, the degree of drug abuse here is less severe.

Tony said that in the past 10 years the number of known drug addicts has grown to a mere 11,680 people, a minuscule fraction of the total population.

He added that about 90 percent of these addicts use cannabis. The remainder are hooked on a combination of narcotics and other illicit substances.

According to noted psychiatrist Prof. Dadang Hawari, 97.25 percent of the abusers are youngsters between 13 and 17 years old.

Indonesians should use the INCB report and Tony's statement to step up the fight against drugs.

When other boundaries in Indonesia fall, there must be one boundary maintained: The national spirit to fight against drug abuse.

All Indonesians still have time to fight against the abuse of all substances which harm their bodies and minds. Ecstasy, heroin, morphine and marijuana are at the top of the list, but alcohol and cigars and cigarettes should follow.