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)