1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Why Jakarta presses forward with drug executions

Thomas Latschan / jtm July 29, 2016

While many are reconsidering violent tactics in the "war on drugs," Indonesia has executed another round of traffickers. President Joko Widodo has relied on the killings to project a strong image within his county.

https://p.dw.com/p/1JXlA
Indonesien Todesstrafe Gefängnis
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Nur

On Friday, after President Joko Widodo denied appeals for clemency, Indonesia began its third round of drug-related executions since the beginning of 2015. A high-ranking judicial official announced that four of 14 planned to be imminently executed were shot down by firing squad on the prison island of Nusakambangan.

While many governments, particularly in the Americas and Europe, as well as the United Nations, are rethinking the use of violent tactics to combat the illicit drug trade, much of Southeast Asia seems to be turning to them with renewed force. Indonesia has announced its intention to execute another 30 drug convicts in 2017. Altogether, 58 such convicts are said to be waiting on death row.

"The increasing use of the death penalty in Indonesia is terribly worrying and I urge the government to immediately end this practice which is unjust and incompatible with human rights," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said earlier this week.

The country's resolution in moving forward with executions of drug traffickers - and often foreign nationals - despite global outcry reveals that the domestic pressure on President Widodo to project a strong image and relegate internal problems to outside sources has outweighed any pressure, foreign or domestic, to uphold human rights.

Glue, not cocaine

Indonesia undeniably has a drug problem. Its National Narcotics Board has said that around 18,000 people die each year of drug-related causes - which amounts to nearly 50 a day - though experts have questioned its methodology. President Widodo has frequently used the death toll as justification for his recourse to the death penalty. "The crime warrants no forgiveness," he said last year.

But the kind of trafficking that is targeted by the executions does not necessarily align with the kind of drug use that poses the biggest danger to the population, believes Alex Flor of the Berlin-based human rights organization Watch Indonesia. The death penalty is often handed to traffickers of hard and valuable drugs from abroad, like heroin and cocaine, although these drugs are out of reach for most of the population.

Indonesien Hinrichtungen
Cars from family of the executed drive to retrieve the bodiesImage: picture alliance/ZUMA Press/D. Husni

"The problem with hard drugs ought to be a problem primarily of the upper class, because they are relatively expensive," Alex Flor told DW. When it comes to popular use, "laced drugs, as well as designer drugs like speed or crystal meth, play a bigger role. And these are mostly dealt by people who do not fit the classical drug mule type," he added.

The lucrative trade of these drugs often even takes place under the protective eye of the military or police.

Furthermore, Flor notes, drug use by children on the street is arguably the biggest part of the country's problem. And they often simply sniff glue-based products that can be bought in stores.

Symbols instead of solutions

Instead of seeing Indonesia's drug policy as a well-reasoned attempt to curb the country's drug trade and deaths, Flor believes that President Widodo aims for his shows of force to be simply that - shows of force. "The population of Indonesia desires a decisive man at the top."

"Jokowi was already popular during his presidential campaign because of his nearness to the people," Flor said, using the nickname often used in Indonesia for the president entered office in 2014. He even made a number of human rights promises as he eyed the top office.

"But the stigma that he is a weakling has stuck to him from the beginning," Flor said. And the desire to refute this perception has proven critical in his decision making.

Infografik Indonesien Hinrichtungen 1999-2017 englisch

He has turned then in many ways towards acts heavy with muscular symbolism. In addition to carrying out drug-related executions, he has had illegal fishing boats from China or Thailand sunk with fiery explosions and has made chemical castration a punishment for sexual offenders.

The evil from abroad

There are also considerable doubts that the trials that have resulted in the death penalty have been carried out constitutionally. "The evidence is often weak," Flor underlined. "The accused in some cases have no access to a genuine defense, or they are often forced through torture to make confessions."

This may have been the case with Pakistani citizen Zulfikar Ali, who was arrested in 2004 on charges of trafficking heroin. Another person accused in the case retracted a statement he made against Ali, saying it was made under the treat of torture. Even an internal investigation committee within the Indonesian government expressed doubts about the way his trial was carried out. Ali continued to appeal his sentence to the Pakistani government this week, to no avail.

Among those condemned to death are often simple workers who - knowingly or not- were used by others as drug mules, like the Filipino domestic worker Mary Jane Veloso. She was set to be executed last April, before her execution was postponed at the last moment.

Philippinen Protest Todesstrafe Drogenschmuggeler
A 2015 candlelight at the Indonesian embassy in the Philippines, in response to the death sentence given to Filipino citizen Mary Jane VelosoImage: Reuters/E. De Castro

"It is striking that the majority of those who have been executed under Jokowi are foreigners," Flor pointed out. "It doesn't reflect the actual number of those who have been arrested on drug-related charges and are sitting in prison."

This has intensified the international protest - Australia, Brazil and the Netherlands all temporarily recalled their ambassadors to Indonesia following executions of their citizens last year, to no effect.

"In any case, he is feeding the cliché that all that is evil and threatening, all that can disturb everyday life in Indonesia, comes from abroad. From homosexuality and communism to drug trafficking."