JUNE 21, 2004:

Indonesia may soon begin execution of death-row drug offenders: Da'1

Indonesian authorities may soon begin the execution of the many drug offenders currently on death row, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said on Sunday.

"The National Police has readied troops to conduct theexecutions," Da'i said at an anti-drug rally here.

"The police will only conduct the executions once an order had been issued by the prosecutor's office. Hopefully, they (the executions) will be announced soon," he said.

The head of the National Agency on Narcotics (BNN), Comr. Gen. Togar Sianipar, told journalists separately after attending the same rally, that there were now four people who had their demand for a presidential pardon rejected.

"The president has already rejected four demands for clemency," he said, adding that he planned to query the head of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General over why orders for their executions have not been issued.

He mentioned no names but said that one of them was currently detained in Medan, North Sumatra province.

The Indonesian courts have passed death sentences in recent years on at least two dozen people for drug offenses. Most are foreigners.

None of the drug traffickers sentenced in recent years has so far been executed because of the drawn-out appeals process.

Da'i also said that according to data from BNN, the number of drug users has spiraled in recent years.

The number of known users had risen from 1,833 in 1999 to 7,140 in 2003, he said.