Hoisted on their own petard

JAKARTA (JP): What should a soldier do before firing tear gas at demonstrators outside the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)? Pull out his handkerchief, of course.

Antara observed that soldiers attempting to disperse protesters with tear gas suffered from the consequences of their own action.

In the late afternoon on Friday, while stinging white clouds of tear gas billowed skyward, watery-eyed soldiers were seen clamping handkerchiefs over their faces.

Sadly it was too little too late, with some of the poor soldiers succumbing to convulsions of sneezing as if suffering from a bad flu.