Residents enraged over drug dealers

Residents enraged over drug dealers

JAKARTA (JP): Disappointed with police's lack of response to
their complaints, hundreds of angry residents attacked two houses
of suspected drug dealers in Salemba, Central Jakarta, early on
Tuesday and set fire to their car and motorcycle.

The owners of the two houses escaped the violence as they were
not at home when the mobs came.

The incident was triggered by the death of a Paseban resident,
23-year-old A.M. Sondi, who was found unconscious on Jl. Salemba
Tengah Monday at 11 p.m., his father, Sobani, told journalists at
his home on Tuesday.

He said Sondi was taken to St. Carolus Hospital shortly after,
but doctors said that Sondi had died minutes before arriving at
the hospital. Doctors believe he had died of a drug overdose.

Sondi's family rejected the doctor's suggestion to send
Sondi's body to Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital to conduct an
autopsy to discover the precise cause of death.

Sobani, however, believed that his son died because of a drug
overdose.

"At about 11 a.m. on Monday, he was fine. There were no signs
at all that he would die," he said. He added that Sondi then left
after a friend picked him up with a motorcycle.

Sobani said residents had long suspected that the two houses,
one belonging to Farida on Jl. Salemba Tengah and another
belonging to Kurnia on Jl. Salemba Raya, were used as a base for
drug dealers.

His neighbor, Adnan Rifa'i, 50, said the residents were sure
that Sondi was taken to the house of Farida or Kurnia by his
friend to take drugs.

He said residents suspected that both Farida and Kurnia were
drug dealers who utilized their houses for drug addicts to buy
and consume drugs.

He said hundreds of angry local residents with wooden sticks,
machetes, sickles and stones then came Farida's house at 1 a.m.
on Tuesday. Since the latter was not at home, the mobs then
burned her Yamaha motorcycle.

The residents then moved to Kurnia's house on Jl. Salemba
Raya. Again the residents failed to find Kurnia, who had escaped
from the house, leaving behind his Honda Civic sedan.

While the residents were attacking the house, several police
officers arrived. Police were about to take the car to the police
station as evidence when the angry residents then set the car
ablaze.

On Tuesday, after attending Sondi's funeral at Kawi-Kawi
public cemetery in Johar Baru district of Central Jakarta,
furious residents repeated their attack on Kurnia's house until
the building was totally destroyed.

Senen Police detective chief Second. Insp. Indra Gunawan said
police were in search of Farida and Kurnia.

"We suspect the two are drug dealers, but we cannot make sure
until we question them," he said.

He added that police found no evidence after searching the two
houses. (01)