National Police buy thousands of firearms
JAKARTA (JP): The National Police has purchased several thousand AK rifles from Russia and will purchase more to arm its elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) forces to fight disturbances in restive areas in the country.
The police will also purchase other weapons and ammunition from Bandung-based state-owned weapons and ammunition manufacturer PT Pindad.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi said the police faced a severe shortage of firearms. Currently, the police are in need of about 23,000 weapons, he said.
"The AK-47 and AK-101 rifles, which are commonly considered as weapons of war, are needed by our Brimob forces to fight against rebellious separatists nationwide," Didi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said the police formerly purchased over 5,000 5.56-caliber AK rifles from Russia last year. "We bought the AK rifles from Russia because they offered a more competitive price than weapons offered by Pindad."
Didi said Pindad had since lowered the price of its weapons, and the National Police had agreed to purchase weapons and ammunition from the state-owned company.
In addition to the AK rifles, the National Police plans to purchase standard police weapons such as Colt guns to arm its detectives and intelligence officers, particularly in the regions, he said.
Many of the weapons will be sent to officers in conflict areas such as Maluku, Kalimantan and Aceh.
Two years of communal violence in the Maluku provinces has resulted in wide-spread devastation in the territory. Before the conflict, the total population of Maluku and North Maluku provinces was about 2.4 million. About 8,000 people have been killed and some 230,000 others have fled their homes and are now living as refugees in other parts of Maluku and in other provinces.
A recent outbreak of ethnic violence recently struck Central Kalimantan, with some 400 people killed in clashes between Madurese migrants and local Dayaks.
In the restive Aceh province, armed clashes between separatist rebels and security forces, including the police, have claimed at least 400 lives this year alone. (ylt)