--- title: "This Country Is Forcing Anti-Maskers to Dig Graves for COVID Victims" description: "Authorities in Indonesia have implemented a grim punishment for anti-maskers: forcing them to dig graves for people who die from the disease." date: "2020-09-15" modified: "2020-09-15" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/country-forcing-anti-maskers-dig-graves-covid" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid-19" - "health" - "masks" --- # This Country Is Forcing Anti-Maskers to Dig Graves for COVID Victims ![Authorities in Indonesia have implemented a grim punishment for anti-maskers: forcing them to dig graves for people who die from the disease.]() *\Image: Image via Pxfuel\* The Indonesian news site *Tribun News* [reports that]() authorities there have implemented a grim punishment for residents who refuse to wear masks: forcing them to dig graves for people who die from the disease. "There are only three available gravediggers at the moment, so I thought I might as well put these people to work with them," said a local official in Gresik, in East Java, as [translated by *The Jakarta Post*](). "Hopefully this can create a deterrent effect against violations." The grisly correctional technique stands in stark contrast to the United States, where [some individual states have issued rules]() requiring residents to wear masks to slow the spread of the pandemic, but there's still no national requirement. Even those limited requirements have been controversial, with demonstrators [in the United States]() [and Europe]() gathering repeatedly to protest against mask wearing. Not so in Indonesia, which instituted a national mandate to wear masks in public [back in July](). That was a response to 3,600 deaths at the time, a figure that has [now swelled]() to nearly 9,000. The grave-digging punishment seems excessive. And Indonesia has a [poor track record on human rights](). But there is a certain schadenfreude — evidenced by the story's [broad pickup]() in the global media — in watching people who disregard the health of others be forced to confront those others' mortality in such a direct way. "We urge the public to wear face masks in accordance with the COVID-19 health protocols," said the local police chief in East Java, according to the *Post*. ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()