S.E. Asia clamps down on drugs

Press, 30 January 1986, Page 20

S.E. Asia clamps down on drugs

By

A.A.P. correspondent,

Those tempted by cheap drug deals in the back streets of South-East Asia might heed the fate of 30 Australians and stick to sightseeing rather than risk their freedom and their lives.

From Bangkok to Bali, the 30 are sharing often filthy, crowded cells following convictions for possessing or trafficking in drugs. Three of them have been sentenced to death. Thailand holds 14, Indonesia 10, Malaysia five and Singapore one, according to Australian Embassy figures. None are at present behind bars in Brunei or the Phillipines but a further nine are on trial or remand elsewhere in the region. Many sweated out more than two years in squalid remand cells until their cases were heard. Most were arrested while boarding flights in Bangkok or Malaysia’s relaxed resort island of Penang, a major drug outlet to Australia.

Police alerted by odd clothing or behaviour, or often acting on tip-offs, found the drugs stuffed (sometimes carelessly) in money-belts, underwear, portable radios, hand luggage and sometimes condoms hidden in the suspect's anus. Two Australian girls each sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in Bangkok last November were caught with heroin packed into their bras. They are Karen Peisley of Sydney, and Kerry Morrison, of Brisbane, both aged 27.

Some prisoners say that they had naively thought of Asia as a drugs haven of relaxed laws and easy-going police who would look the other way if you slipped them the right amount.

It used to be so in the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which groups Thailand, Malaysia,

LEIGH MACKAY, in Jakarta

Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines, but several of these countries are struggling with the high social and economic costs — especially for a developing country — of growing heroin addiction among the young and drug-related crime. Now their stance is hardening. “Thank you for flying with us, and remember — death to drug traffickers under Malaysian law,” is the flight attendent’s startling farewell on most international flights into Malaysia. It has become a battle cry in the intensified war against narcotics.

The weapons are bettertrained and motivated drug squads, harsher penalties, links with computerised Australian and United States anti-narcotics centres and a growing army of police informers. “We know the pick-up hotels, we know the dealers, we often know from our international sources which suspects are regularly flying first class through the drug capitals,” said an officer of the Penang drug squad.

One of the three Australians who could be executed is Donald Tait, 52, now in leg-irons and suffering a mild heart condition in Bangkok’s Bang Kwang maximum security prison. This former pilot from Casino, New South Wales was convicted last October of possessing heroin with intent to sell and now shares a nine-by-two metre cell with eight others for 22-and-a--half hours a day. He hopes his appeal will save him from the firing squad.

Tait’s case illustrates the hazards facing drug suspects in Asia — confusing legal systems, reluctance by Australian authorities to interfere, harsh sentences, and primitive prison conditions.

Defendants and relatives who manage to raise the considerable airfare and accommodation fees to attend a trial are often puzzled or alarmed by the unfamiliar legal procedures and lack of juries. Witnesses, especially if poor and uneducated, may seem confused and are easily intimidated. Courts accept evidence that would strike Australian lawyers as flimsy and inadmissible and make decisions that might seem arbitrary to Westerners.

Australian embassies recommend lawyers and monitor trials but cannot act as “off-shore law firms”, as a Bangkok diplomat put it. They cannot openly criticise the host nation’s legal system nor guarantee a “fair” trial, a notion that differs from culture to culture.

A diplomat who has observed Asian drug trials said while most suspects “are caught red handed", there was a greater chance of being convicted on circumstantial evidence than in Australia and of users also being convicted of trafficking. Tait says he had difficulty following proceedings because he lacked a good interpreter and access to transcripts. Because his lawyer was away the day he was sentenced, he was not even aware of the outcome until officials interpreted it for him. He pleaded not guilty but his previous drug convictions in Australia and Bali appeared to influence the verdict and led the prosecutor, a nephew of the judge, to allege he was part of an international drugs ring. The other Australians sentenced to die for heroin trafficking are Kevin Barlow, of Adelaide and Brian Chambers, of Perth, both 28, who share the crowded death row in Kuala Lumpur’s Pudu prison after losing their appeal last month.

They are hoping that a meeting of the Penang State Pardons Board, probably in March, will save them from the gallows. Chambers’ lawyer has asked the board to commute his sentence to life imprisonment The six-member board meets privately and can quash or commute a sentence or pardon the defendent, but it does not publish reasons for its decisions, nor disclose the Attorney-General’s recommendation to it, which may be partly based on secret police evidence, lawyers said. The Australian Foreign Minister, Bill Hayden has formally asked the board for clemency for the Australians, but Malaysia, sensitive to outside interference, has warned that the request carries no more weight than any other submission.

Malaysia suffers from widespread heroin addiction and is a centre for illegal and often mobile laboratories which process heroin from opium smuggled down from the Golden Triangle. It is a prime outlet to Australia and the United States via Singapore and Indonesia. Alarmed by the growing problem, it made the death sentence automatic for convicted traffickers in 1983. It defines “trafficking” as knowingly possessing more than 15 grams of heroin or morphine or 200 grams of cannabis.

There is little doubting Malaysia’s determination. It has hanged 32 people for trafficking in the last 10 years and is holding more than 50 on death row. Another 1100 are awaiting trial under the new law, said the deputy Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Achmad.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Musa Hitam, has sworn to apply the death penalty equally to foreigners and locals. Politically the Government can not

afford to show leniency because of the colour of someone’s skin, Malaysian lawyers said. “There will be no compromise for those who are slowly killing our young people,” Datuk Musa said adding that Malaysia has 106,000 registered addicts (and police estimate another 400,000 unregistered) out of a population of 15 million people. Although A.S.E.A.N. anti-drug authorities co-operate closely, their Governments have not standardised penalties, resulting in vastly contrasting sentences. Brunel and Singapore, which has hanged 15 convicted traffickers in the last five years, both adopted mandatory death penalties for trafficking in 1984 after lobbying by Malaysia. The Philippines can execute traffickers but most get prison terms. Thailand is also armed with an optional death penalty, carried out by machine-gunning. Tait is the first Westerner to receive the sentence.

Thai courts encourage people to plead guilty by halving the sentence if they do. Most Australians in prison there took this course, including a former Newtown (N.S.W.) rugby league star, John Hayward, 32, and the four women in Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison. After four years as model prisoners, they may apply for a royal pardon every two years. “The thought of a pardon is the only thing that keeps me from cracking,” said Victorian Bruce Allen, 36, serving 25 years in Bangkok for heroin trafficking. Indonesia is stepping up the fight against drugs but still hands out the most lenient sentences. Bali prosecutors demanded death last year for four Europeans but they got 10 to 20 years in prison instead.

“Generally, Indonesia is getting tougher — what used to attract a five-year sentence now gets eight to 10 years and police in Bali are making more arrests, often by posing as dealers," said Australia’s consul there, Ray Gardiner. Conditions in most A.S.E.A.N. prisons are spartan with poor hygiene and medical attention and a monotonous diet of rice and stew, although foreigners say they can sometimes buy Western food and in certain cases are allowed tape decks and books. Ironically, the standard currency in most large A.S.E.A.N. prisons is heroin, prisoners told A.A.P. They buy it with money from relatives and use it to kill boredom or trade it with guards in return for privileges. One exception to this appears to be Bangkok’s Klong Prem women’s prison. A Sydney girl, Kay Ayers, serving 25 years for heroin trafficking described it as “relatively clean, no drugs, and the staff are okay if you-behave. The worst thing is. boredom and missing yourfamily and the thought that, my God, you could spend the next 25 years in here.”