As a third round of executions nears, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo commemorating the UN’s International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on Sunday, took the moment to bolster his tough stance on traffickers.

In a fiery appeal, Jokowi instructed the National Police and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) to pursue, arrest and “smash” small-, medium- or big-time drug dealers operating in the country and even “shoot them on sight if existing law allowed it”, to tell the world that Indonesia was serious in its fight against drugs.

“If [shooting on sight] were allowed by the law then I would have ordered the National Police and the BNN chief to do so, but luckily it is not. This extraordinary crime has affected not only adults, but also elementary school and kindergarten-aged children,” Jokowi said during the commemoration ceremony.

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