Indonesia’s drug war is still far from Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s in terms of the extrajudicial killings of drug traffickers, but some people in Indonesia, such as National Narcotics Agency (BNN) Chief Budi Waseso, seem to want to push the country towards that direction (Waseso having often voiced his admiration for Duterte’s violent approach to eradicating narcotics).
Yesterday, Waseso reiterated his tough stance on drugs by saying that his officers would have no problems shooting drug traffickers if they resist arrest, and no one is exempt from this – not even celebrities.
“We will act sternly. We don’t want a celeb to become an example because we have to shoot them for resisting arrest,” Waseso said, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
“Dying (from drug trafficking) is a risk and consequence. I will not treat (celebrities) differently.”
Waseso’s warning comes amid an increase in the arrests of celebrities for drug possession or use in Indonesia. So far in 2017, at least 7 high profile celebrities, including actor Tora Sudiro and musician Ello, have been arrested for possession of illegal narcotics.
Indonesia does not condone extrajudicial killings of drug traffickers, but President Joko Widodo in July said that authorities should shoot drug traffickers, including foreigners, “if they resist even the slightest” in order to combat a “drug emergency” in the country.
There has been an upswing in the number of fatal shootings of drug traffickers in Indonesia in 2017, at least in terms of media coverage. In the first 7 months of this year, 49 drug traffickers were reportedly shot dead by authorities, compared to 14 and 10 in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
The death penalty for drug trafficking saw increasing use during the early part of President Joko Widodo’s administration. Although the country’s execution of local and foreign drug traffickers drew strong criticism from other countries and rights groups, Jokowi’s administration seems intent on reasserting its violent stance against drug trafficking despite it, statistically, not reducing the amount of illegal narcotics being trafficked in the country.
