WILL INDONESIA APPLY PHILIPPINES-STYLE METHODS IN ITS WAR AGAINST DRUGS? --- By Fardah

Jakarta, Oct 27, 2016 (Antara) - Reports about attempts to smuggle drugs from China and neighboring Malaysia continue to surface despite the Indonesian government's all out war against drugs. 
   Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency (BNN) recently dismantled an international drugs distribution network by seizing 12,488 grams of crystal methamphetamine that had been allegedly smuggled from Malaysia.

        The authorities thwarted another attempt to smuggle in drugs in mid-August when a Chinese national was found carrying 990 grams of contraband.

         During 2015, police arrested 50,178 suspects in 40,253 drug-related cases and confiscated 23.2 tons of marijuana, more than one million ecstasy pills and 2.3 tons of crystal methamphetamine.

        There were 5.9 million drug users in the country in 2015, most of them teenagers, according to the BNN.

        Indonesia is among the few countries that have the harshest drug laws in the world. It executed 14 drug convicts, mostly foreigners, in 2015, and four others in July 2016.

        President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasized that notwithstanding protests by several countries and parties at home, he would not grant clemency to drug convicts, seen as responsible for the death of nearly 50 Indonesians, mostly young men, every day.

        In February this year, he had called on all stakeholders to declare a war against drug abuse and drug trafficking and ordered that every point of entrance - airports, seaports and border areas - must be closed to drug smugglers.

        "I want all efforts aimed at eradicating drugs to be stepped up and carried out in a bolder manner, comprehensively, and in an integrated way," the head of state remarked.

          In line with the president's directives, BNN Chief Commissioner General Budi Waseso declared that the agency is ready adopt the policy to shoot to kill drug dealers who have spoilt the life of millions of Indonesian youth and put the future of the nation in jeopardy.

         "We are not doing things in a random manner. In fact, our actions are well calibrated. We will only target those about whom we already have solid information. There is no use sending them to rehabilitation centers as that would not change them. They would try to corrupt people even there," Waseso stated in Surabaya, East Java, on Oct. 26.

        He claimed that his proposal to shoot to kill drug dealers was not against the law or the concept of human rights.

         "It is the drug dealers who have violated human rights," he pointed out during a meeting with leading representatives of mass media. That meeting was also attended by East Java police chief Insp. Gen. Anton Setiadji, East Java Vice Governor H Saifullah Yusuf, and regional military leaders. 
    He recalled President Joko Widodo's earlier statement that the country is currently facing a state of drug emergency, and underlined that the president has even declared a war against drugs.

       In fact, the agency has prepared a special team which would act firmly against drug dealers.

        "We are only waiting for certain standard weapons that we have ordered and these would be available in November," he disclosed.

        He said the BNN already has 50 trained police dogs (K-9) especially to help in tracking drugs.

        "We trained the 50 K-9 for six months. I was even asked by the president to go to the Netherlands to study how to train K-nine," he informed.

        The dog squad would be further strengthened by recruiting local dogs, he pointed out, adding that the BNN would seek the cooperation of dog lovers.

         He disclosed that drug couriers run a "drug market regeneration operation," targeting kindergarten, elementary and junior high school children.

        The big drug mafia abroad gains the most from the illicit trade that targets Indonesian youth.

        "The drug network has a turnover of around Rp3.6 trillion a year and just last year, Rp2.7 trillion worth of funds were transferred from Indonesia to addresses in 11 countries, mainly in China," he observed. 
   The other countries were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, the Philippines and Thailand.

          In the latest drug-related money laundering case, two people identified as R and JT were arrested from the Pluit Sakti housing complex in North Jakarta on Oct. 17, 2016.  The two suspects used 15 companies to disguise the money transfers.

       "In the process, BNN investigators also discovered that the transactions involved members of the Pony Tjandra drug network and their colleagues," Waseso remarked.

         Furthermore, the BNN chief complained that he felt frustrated as other countries, including neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, do not readily cooperate in the fight against drugs.

        "Therefore, we would deal with the situation the same way as some others do since we have learnt from many other countries," he declared.

         In the Philippines in Indonesia's neighborhood, nearly 2,300 people have been killed in police operations or by suspected vigilantes since President Rodrigo Duterte took office on June 30 this year. That figure was revised down this month by the police from an original tally of 3,600 deaths.

         Duterte won a landslide election victory on May 9 riding on a promise to wipe out drugs and crime.

         The killings have drawn widespread international criticism, including from the United Nations, in turn drawing angry responses from Duterte.

        Indonesia has also faced intense criticism internationally for resuming executions, but the government is determined to continue with the death penalty policy to deter drug criminals. ***2***
(f001/INE)
EDITED BY INE/H-YH

(T.F001/A/BESSR/A/Yosep) 27-10-2016 21:49:38