Muladi warns of death penalty for rice hoarders

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)