JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has ordered the police to shoot drug traffickers who resist arrest in the latest effort to eradicate drug use in the country. In a speech to one of Indonesia’s political parties late Friday, Widodo urged law enforcers to crackdown on drug dealers in Indonesia. The Indonesian Narcotics Agency recorded there are 6 million drug users in the archipelago out of its 255 million people, a situation the president labelled “drug emergency.”But Widodo’s remarks prompted criticism from human rights activists. Indonesia imposes a tough punishment for drug trafficking, with smugglers who carry five or more grams given the death penalty. In the last two years, it has executed about 18 drug traffickers, including foreigners such as Australian Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, which sparked diplomatic outrage and a call to abolish the death penalty.

Source: Manila Times July 23, 2017 07:07 UTC