Muladi warns of death penalty for rice hoarders

JAKARTA (JP): Anyone caught disrupting government efforts to beat the food shortage could face execution, Minister of Justice Muladi warned on Tuesday.

Muladi cited Law No. 5/PNPS, 1959, which states that anyone attempting to hinder government efforts to provide food and clothes to the people could face the death penalty.

The law, passed when Indonesia was campaigning to win possession of the former Dutch colony of Irian Jaya, is still valid, he said.

"I think it is important for us to think about using it to enforce the rule of law," Muladi told journalists after the opening of the third annual Asia-Pacific Forum on Human Rights Issues at the Bina Graha presidential office.

In addition to the law, Muladi said there were some other regulations which could be used to safeguard food distribution and supplies.

Muladi did not specify who the threat was directed at, but Minister of Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises Adi Sasono has singled out big traders seeking high profits as being to blame for skyrocketing rice prices.

Adi has accused traders of hoarding supplies to push prices up and of smuggling rice into neighboring countries in order to benefit from the wide disparity in prices which currently exists.

Muladi minister fell short of invoking the Subversive Law, often used by the previous administration, to nail just about anyone, from corruptors, smugglers, drug traffickers and government critics.

Before he became minister, Muladi had been one of the most ardent critics of the government's use of the subversive law.

The government of President B.J. Habibie has promised to repeal the legislation. (prb/rid)