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Indonesia’s President Encourages Cops to Shoot Drug Dealers

Fears Indonesia may soon copy the famously brutal drug war deployed in the Philippines.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has instructed his country's police force to shoot drug dealers, stoking fears that Indonesia may soon copy the famously brutal drug war deployed in the Philippines by President Rodrigo Duterte.

"Be firm, especially to foreign drug dealers who enter the country and resist arrest. Shoot them, because we indeed are in a narcotics emergency position now," Widodo said in a speech at a national meeting of Indonesia's United Development Party in Jakarta late Friday evening.

Widodo's remarks came shortly after Indonesian police shot and killed a Taiwanese man allegedly resisting arrest while attempting to smuggle one ton of crystal meth into Greater Jarkarta. After the incident, National Police Chief General Tito Karnavian praised the police response and cited Duterte as inspiration. "From practice in the field, we see that when we shoot at drug dealers, they go away," he said.

Karnavian said he told officers "not to hesitate shooting drug dealers who resist arrest."

Indonesia already has tough drug laws on the books, and courts have handed out death penalties to convicted traffickers, including two Australian citizens, executed in 2015.

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