Yahoo – AFP,
13 Nov 2015
Indonesia's
anti-drugs czar wants tigers and piranhas as prison guards
(AFP Photo/Romeo
Gacad)
|
Jakarta
(AFP) - After sparking ridicule with a proposal to build a prison island for
drug convicts surrounded by crocodiles, Indonesia's anti-drugs czar has now
gone further -- revealing on Friday he also wants tigers and piranhas as
guards.
In an idea
that seemed to come straight out of a James Bond film, Budi Waseso this week
unveiled the prison island plan, explaining that crocodiles can't be bribed by
drug traffickers seeking to escape jail.
He embarked
on a tour of the country to find "the most ferocious type of
crocodile" to guard the jail, which is to be for drug convicts who have
been sentenced to death.
Budi Waseso
embarked on a tour of
Indonesia to find "the most ferocious type
of
crocodile" to guard a new jail (AFP Photo/
Romeo Gacad)
|
"It is
also possible we may use piranhas, and because the number of personnel at the
prison might not be enough, we can also use tigers," he was cited as
saying in local reports.
Indonesia
already has some of the toughest anti-narcotics laws in the world, including
death by firing squad for traffickers, and sparked international uproar in
April when it put to death seven foreign drug convicts.
But
President Joko Widodo has insisted that drug dealers must face death as the
country is fighting a "national emergency" due to rising narcotics
use.
Despite the
harsh laws, Indonesia's corrupt prison system is awash with drugs, and inmates
and jail officials are regularly arrested for narcotics offences.
Anti-drugs
agency spokesman Slamet Pribadi confirmed Waseso was also weighing the
possibility of tigers and piranhas as guards, and hit back at suggestions the
prison island plan was a joke.
"This
is serious, this is not a joke," Pribadi told AFP.
"Drug
trafficking is an extraordinary crime and therefore the fight must also be
extraordinary, we cannot fight the usual way."
The idea is
still in the early stages, and the agency is in discussions with the justice
ministry about it. Neither a location nor a potential opening date has been
decided.
The plan
has echoes of the Bond movie "Live and Let Die", when the secret
agent escapes from an island surrounded by crocodiles by using the reptiles as
stepping stones.
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