Police claim to lack authority in Lt. Agus case

JAKARTA (JP): A senior police officer said on Saturday the city police headquarters are not responsible in investigating Second Lt. Agus Isrok, who was accused of possessing shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), heroin and ecstasy pills in September.

"The city police does not have the competency to investigate the case," city police detectives chief Col. Alex Bambang Riatmodjo told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on drug abuse at Hotel Crowne Plaza.

Agus is the son of former Army chief of staff Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, who was replaced on Saturday.

Alex's statement, however, contradicted remarks made on Friday by city police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman, who said his office was still investigating the case "in a professional manner".

Noegroho's remarks came after reporters asked him to comment on the statement made on the same day by city military police commander Col. Mungkono Mursidi.

According to Mungkono, his office had yet investigated the suspected role of Agus in the case due to the absence of dossiers from the city police, which he said had the responsibility to prepare and submit the dossiers because it was the party who arrested him.

Mungkono said the city military police would carry out an investigation only after they received the dossiers from the police,

According to Alex, the city police only had authority to carry out investigations on criminal cases which involved civilians.

"It's the military police which have the authority to investigate military personnel like Agus," Alex said.

The Saturday seminar featured, among others, Sudirman, the head of Fatmawati hospital's unit for drug dependent patients, psychologists Dadang Hawari and Sartono Mukadis, and Henry Yosodiningrat, the chairman of the National Antidrug Movement (Granat).

Sudirman told the participants that people should avoid using the old approach in handling drug problems.

"Parents should no longer use the one-way communication mechanism by merely telling their children that drugs are dangerous to their future," he said.

"Parents must give their children the freedom to obtain information on the dangers of drugs by themselves, so that they will have the freedom of thought to decide what is best for their future," said Sudirman.

Sudirman said the new approach would lead the children into gaining a self-consciousness in understanding drug problems.

"Having that self-consciousness about the dangers of drugs will make them risk saying no to their peers' demands to do drugs," he said, adding that social intercourse was a strong factor for children to do drugs.

He noted the increasing number of drug addiction cases, which affect 130,000 people in the city this year.

"The number of people visiting Fatmawati hospital for consultations has been increasing day by day," said Sudirman.

He said there were 1,500 people visiting the hospital for consultations in 1996. The number increased to 3,500 in 1997, and stayed at that total for 1998. But the number rose to 6,000 in September this year.

Meanwhile, Dadang Hawari suggested that parents should tell their children about the dangers of drugs from an early age, a period when they were not yet influenced by the outside world.

"Religious education occupies an important place in this matter. Our Muslim children strongly believe that pork is prohibited by Islam," he told seminar participants, adding that a similar approach must be applied to the use of drugs.

Dadang said early education would lay down strong foundations for children to be firm against offers of drugs.

Meanwhile, Henry Yosodiningrat urged for people's active involvement in the campaign against drugs.

"The number of police officers is limited. Jakartans must therefore actively participate in the war against drugs," he said.(asa)