Indonesia uses faulty statistics to justify rights violations in drug crimes. A group of worldwide social organizations has sent a letter to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) to urge the removal of its support for the methodologically defective data produced by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), which it intends to use to increase punitive measures after declaring a national drug emergency. Antara/Agung Rajasa Major haul: Finance Minister Bambang Bodjonegoro (center), accompanied by National Narcotics Agency (BNN) head Comr. Gen, Budi Waseso (right) and customs and excise director general Heru Pambudi, briefs the press at the BNN building recently following the confiscation of 270 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine in Medan, North Sumatra, and Dumai, Riau.

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The newly inaugurated National Narcotics Agency (BNN) chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso continues to make controversy. Soon after his inauguration, Budi said that he would review all laws related to drugs. He even said that he would send all drug users to prison, instead of making them undergo rehabilitation programs as mandated by the current law on narcotics.

Budi also claimed that fighting drugs should include reviewing related laws, since imperfect regulations were an obstacle for BNN in performing its duties. Budi announced that he would propose a revision to Law No. 35/2009 on Narcotics, especially Article 54, which states that social and medical rehabilitation must be provided to drug addicts and victims of drug abuse.

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Seven Foreigners Are Among Drug Convicts Killed. a Filipina Is Spared for Now.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Ignoring international pressure and heart-wrenching last-minute family pleas for clemency, Indonesia executed eight men on drug charges early Wednesday, Indonesian news media reported.

However, authorities said they had spared for now a female prisoner from the Philippines who had been scheduled to die.

Officials did not release an immediate statement confirming the executions of seven foreigners and an Indonesian. News reports cited unnamed officials, and Amnesty International said it had received confirmation of the executions. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said its one citizen among the condemned had been put to death.

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JAKARTA, Indonesia - Two are young Australians portrayed back home as generally good lads. One is a Brazilian who is mentally ill. There are four Nigerian men, a female migrant worker from the Philippines and an Indonesian laborer.

They come from diverse backgrounds and circumstances, but all nine were convicted of drug crimes in Indonesia. And all are scheduled to die soon in a mass execution on a remote island off the southern coast of Java.

In what is believed will be the largest such execution in Indonesia in decades, firing squads could start the job as early as 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.

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MAKASSAR - Over the last few weeks we have witnessed, or perhaps been involved in, a fierce debate about drugs and how to deal with drug abuse, drug dealing and the accompanying issues in Indonesia. The polemic in particular turned emotional, since drug use is a sensitive issue.

The controversy was triggered by the execution of nine convicted drug traffickers, including foreign nationals, and the handing down of death sentences to 10 others shortly thereafter.

The strict law enforcement has sparked a diplomatic row between Indonesia and several countries whose citizens were or will be executed.

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Life sentences for drug convicts have proven to be ineffective in Indonesia. After many years of delaying the execution of drug convicts - the execution of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan has been postponed for almost a decade - drug trafficking still lingers.

Life sentences never prevent drug traffickers from continuing their businesses. The case of the Nusakambangan prisoners Sartoni and Sutrisno was an obvious example that drug trafficking gets worse day after day. It is strange that they could manage such prohibited businesses from the prison.

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Jakarta (AFP) - An Indonesian funeral home has reportedly prepared at least 10 caskets for police ahead of the planned execution of death-row convicts, including two Australian drug smugglers whose sentences have strained the country's relations with Canberra.

The report came as Indonesia announced yesterday that it had on Friday night deported Ms Candace Sutton, a reporter for Australia's Daily Mail, as she had interviewed without a proper visa a relative of one of the Australian convicts in the coastal town of Cilacap.

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Prisoners in Bali's Kerobokan jail are petrified they will be abandoned by the world after their mentors and advocates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are killed this month.

While the art, computer, bible and cooking classes co-ordinated by Sukumaran and Chan are well documented, few on the outside are aware of the advocacy role the men have played in the prison over many years.

The two Australians use their extensive network of supporters to source food, medical supplies, money and other goods for fellow prisoners.

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It's hard for me to comprehend how beautiful ancient Asian cultures, which have lived harmoniously with the earth for centuries, got sucked into this shameful and unholy American-led "war on drugs". It's actually a war on any drug that is not owned by the pharmaceutical industry - Big Pharma - and of course that includes nature's best pain-relieving plants: the opium poppy, cannabis and the coca plant. Now look at the illegal trade in heroin, pot and coke.

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Aceh might be famous for its brutal application of Islamic sharia law, but it's also where a certain intoxicating weed has been getting people high for generations.

Marijuana sales once helped fund the 30- year war waged by separatist rebels and when they descended from their mountain strongholds after the 2005 peace deal, the plantations remained.

To this day, two lucrative cash crops - coffee and " ganja" - provide a healthy income in Aceh's rural hinterland.

In a pungent smoke haze at a secret location in the capital, Banda Aceh, an enterprising group of young stoners is combining the two into what could perhaps be viewed as the essence of Aceh.

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