JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has instructed law enforcement officers to shoot drug traffickers to deal with a narcotics emergency facing the country.
"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 delivered late Friday at a political party event.
His remarks have drawn a comparison to the stand of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who launched a brutal anti-drug crackdown a year ago that has resulted in more than 2,400 deaths, many of them in vigilante killings.
The bloody campaign in the Phillipines has drawn condemnation from the international community, including the United Nations.
Indonesia also has tough laws against drugs. Widodo has previously been criticised for ordering executions of convicted drug traffickers who were given a death penalty by the court. Rights activists and some governments have called on Indonesia to abolish the death penalty.
Friday's shooting order from Widodo came a week after Indonesian police shot dead a Taiwanese man in a town near Jakarta.
The man, who was part of a group trying to smuggle one tonne of crystal methamphetamine into the country, was killed for resisting arrest, police have said.
After the incident, Indonesian National Police chief Tito Karnavian was quoted as saying he had ordered officers not to hesitate shooting drug dealers who resist arrest.