LBH Jakarta condemns purchase of gas pistols
LBH Jakarta condemns purchase of gas pistols
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) on
Wednesday condemned the purchase of 60 gas pistols to be used by
city public order and civil defense officials.
Head of LBH Jakarta's City and Urban Society, Tubagus Haryo
Karbyanto, said the move showed that the city administration
affairs are still dominated by a militaristic approach.
"Equipping the city officials with gas pistols will only add
to the already existing violent culture, which is often a feature
of crackdown operations held by the city public order office,"
Karbyanto said in a statement, copies of which were made
available to the press.
"The city administration then must accept legal and moral
responsibility if any misuse of the gas pistols occurs," he
added.
Instead, Karbyanto suggested that the budget for the gas
pistols purchase be used for other programs, such as for
supporting the homeless who were captured during the operations.
Karbyanto was commenting on the purchase of 60 pistols which
will be used by city officials during operations to restore
order.
Karbyanto's statement was supported by Deputy chief of
Tangerang Police Comm. Ricky F. Wakano.
"There is no legal basis for the city public order and civil
defense officials to uphold the law by shooting at people.
"The city officials may misuse the gas pistols during
physical contact with the crowd," Ricky said.
Yet, the city administration's move has won the support of
Jakarta police chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman.
"The police support the idea, but only to the extent of arming
top public order officials. The police and city administration is
in the process of discussing this matter seriously," Mulyono told
reporters at city police headquarters.
Councillor Abdul Azis Matnur of the Justice Party (PK) faction
also said that he supported the move to equip the public order
and civil defense officials with gas pistols due to the worsening
security conditions in the capital.
"In reality, the city needs at least 216 gas pistols which
will are to be given to chiefs of the operational units," Abdul
said.
He, however, questioned the city public order office's move to
procure 60 gas pistols, instead of 30 as already recommended by
the city council.
"We (city council) only approved the purchase of 30 gas
pistols with a total budget of Rp 900 million (US$94,736) as part
of the project to upgrade the city officials' equipment, as
stated in development expenditure of the 2001 city budget,"
Abdul, a councillor of the council's Commission A on government
affairs, said.
He questioned how the city administration could cover the
remaining Rp 300 million needed to purchase the pistols and why
they had yet to inform the city council about the changes to the
2001 city budget.
"They are not transparent," said Abdul, while citing that the
project cost Rp 2.23 billion, including the purchase of 102
walkie-talkies, 220 protection shields and 220 helmets.
The City Public Order office has spent Rp 1.2 billion to
purchase 60 gas pistols for self defense in case of attacks
during operations to restore order.
Each gas pistol, which has an effective shooting range of up
to 10 meters and weighs 660 grams with the magazine capacity of
seven bullets, can paralyze a person for 10 minutes due to its
anesthetic effect.
The .9 millimeter caliber German-made Melcher pistol, with a
100 mm barrel, costs Rp 20 million, including the training and
license fees provided by the National Police headquarters.
(07/ylt)