Legal experts urge police to disarm volunteers

JAKARTA (JP): Legal professionals called on city police on Monday to disarm volunteers who are part of a joint security force safeguarding the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Spokesman of the Central Jakarta District Court Paiman Martoredjo cited the bid was illegal and said the police must take stern measures against volunteers who carried sharp weapons or guns without a license from the city's security authority.

"Police can arrest the volunteers carrying sharp or dangerous weapons," Paiman said, quoting the 1951 Emergency Law which carries a maximum 10 years in jail.

Paiman said the police, however, never exercised the authority to arrest and prosecute volunteers carrying the weapons.

"The police should frequently conduct raids in the near future to prevent volunteers from using the weapons," Paiman said.

A lawyer at the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBH), Waskito Adiribowo, shared Paiman's opinion that the city police must arrest volunteers who have sharp or dangerous weapons in their possession.

"Disarming the volunteers will avoid any bloodshed if the situation turns chaotic," Waskito said, adding that they would only be victims of the political elites' interests.

Central Jakarta Police chief Lt. Col. Timur Pradopo, said the police would instruct volunteers to not carry the weapons during duty.

"We will order them not to carry sharp or dangerous weapons," he said.

He, however, dismissed reports that volunteers were carrying the weapons while on duty.

"I've never seen any of them carrying sharp weapons. We will consider taking measures against them only after we see evidence of it," he said without elaborating.

A prosecutor at the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office, Ramdhanu, said prosecutors would wait for police reports before filing dossiers at court.

"We will prosecute the case after the police submit the report to us," he said, adding that people should not carry or possess sharp or dangerous weapons under any circumstance.

He mentioned what conditions people could possess or carry the weapons.

"Only weapon traders are allowed to carry or have sharp weapons on them.

"People can also carry sharp weapons in a cultural performance," he said.

Several volunteers from the Ka'abah Youth Movement Brigade (Brigade GPK) and the task force of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Satgas PDI Perjuangan) were seen on Monday carrying commando knives hung from their waist while patrolling Hotel Indonesia's grounds, one of the hotels hosting the MPR members.

Bonar, the coordinator of Satgas PDI Perjuangan from the party's North Jakarta chapter said the party never instructed Satgas members to equip themselves with sharp weapons.

"That was merely on their own initiative. We'll disarm them soon," he told The Jakarta Post at the hotel.

M. Idris, a member of Satgas PDI Perjuangan, said he did not know about the law which prohibited him from carrying sharp or dangerous weapons.

Slamet of Brigade GPK said he carried sharp weapons for self defense.

"I got the weapons from home. I will use them if the situation becomes tense," he said. (asa)