In a
very controversial move that has gained international condemnation, a
country wants to take the fight against drug trafficking to another
level by building a prison guarded by tigers, piranhas and crocodiles.
Chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso
|
A controversial drug tsar has announced plans to house drug
traffickers in a prison surrounded by a moat full of crocodiles. The
chief of Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency Budi Waseso was ridiculed
when he made the statement last month. But he has since said he is
deadly serious and is thinking of employing man-eating piranhas and
tigers as guards as well.
He told the media: "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.
"You can't bribe crocodiles. You can't convince them to let inmates escape ."
Waseso had 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.
He has already obtained two crocodiles from a farm to study their
power and aggression and may ultimately put as many as 1,000 in place to
keep convicts from escaping.
"The number will depend on how big the area is, or whether
perhaps to combine them with piranhas," he told reporters, according to
the rimanews.com portal.
"Because the (prison) personnel numbers are short we can use
wild animals. We could use tigers too - for conservation at the same
time."
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."
Indonesia has some of the harshest anti-drugs laws in the world,
including death by firing squad for traffickers. The country sparked
international uproar in April when it put to death eight foreign drug
convicts, including Australian Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran.
A ninth prisoner set to face the firing squad, Filipino woman Mary
Jane Veloso, received a last-minute temporary reprieve. British gran
Lindsay Sandiford, 59, has been facing the death penalty since being
sentenced for trying to smuggle cocaine into Bali in 2013. In separate
comments on the TV One channel, Waseso rejected critics who said his
plans to use animals as jailors were trampling on the human rights of
convicts.
"We have to look at the whole problem," he said. "These people are murderers - mass murderers. Shouldn't we also look at the human rights of their victims?"
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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