EXECUTIONS FOR DRUG CRIMES ARE RESUMED IN INDONESIA

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- This country has resumed executions for serious
drug crimes after a four-year hiatus, and Indonesia's attorney
general has warned drug offenders on death row that their executions
may now be accelerated.

The resumption follows a decision last year by Indonesia's
Constitutional Court that upheld the death penalty for serious drug offenses.

Two Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were the first to be
executed for drug crimes after the long break. The two, Samuel
Iwachekwu Okoye and Hansen Anthony Nwaliosa, were put to death on June 26.

All executions in Indonesia are by firing squad. Prisoners are taken
to a field to stand in front of 12 men who each fire one shot aimed
at the chest. If that barrage does not kill the prisoner, a commander
stands ready to fire a point-blank shot to the head.

Although Indonesia is known for some of the world's strictest
penalties for drug offenses, Kathryn Duff, a representative of
Amnesty International, said the country was "not typically an
enthusiastic executioner."

Indeed, Indonesia had suspended executions for drug offenders while
the court was considering the constitutional case and had not put
drug offenders to death for two years before that while prisoners
pursued judicial reviews and clemency, said A. H. Ritonga, a deputy
attorney general.

Mr. Ritonga said the statement last month by the attorney general,
Hendarman Supandji, about speeding up executions did not necessarily
mean all 58 prisoners on death row for drug-related crimes would be
executed soon. "Death row inmates will only be executed according to
the law, after their appeals are exhausted," Mr. Ritonga said, adding
that they can also apply for clemency.

The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has publicly said, however,
that he would not pardon drug offenders.

Using the death penalty for drug offenses had been challenged by
three Australians sentenced to death for trying to smuggle heroin off
the resort island of Bali, and by two Indonesians. Last October, the
Constitutional Court ruled that a constitutional amendment upholding
the right to life did not apply to capital punishment. The court
added that the right to life had to be balanced against the rights of
the victims of drug trafficking.

Indonesia executed the two Nigerians on the International Day Against
Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, as a message to those trafficking
drugs through the country.

Indonesia is fighting an epidemic of drug abuse. Its population of
238 million includes an estimated 18 million addicts, according to
the Ministry of Health.

There are 112 felons on death row. Seven have exhausted appeals and
may be executed soon; they include three prisoners convicted in the
2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, according to the attorney
general's office. Eighteen other prisoners have appealed for clemency.

Indonesia executed only three prisoners in 2006, the year before the
death penalty challenge was filed. By comparison, according to
Amnesty International, China is estimated to have executed at least
1,000 prisoners that year; Iran executed 177; and Pakistan, 82. In
the United States, there were 53 executions.

Still, President Yudhoyono has been a staunch supporter of the death
penalty since taking office in October 2004, rarely granting clemency.

He went ahead with the executions of three men who had been convicted
in connection with attacks by a Christian militia on Muslims, despite
concerns from international human rights groups that not all the
evidence had been presented during their trial.

So far, Mr. Yudhoyono, a former general, also has not bowed to
pressure from Australia to commute the death sentence of the three
Australians imprisoned for trying to smuggle heroin.

The three are entitled to seek one more judicial review and, should
that fail, to appeal for clemency.