Police wage war on illegal firearms

JAKARTA (JP): The city police and the military are undertaking an operation to register guns held by civilians and military personnel following a series of armed robberies in Greater Jakarta.

"All guns not covered by legal documents will be confiscated," City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hamami Nata told reporters yesterday.

He said some servicemen possessed guns, which were no longer used by the Armed Forces. He said he had no idea how they got the guns.

According to Hamami, the illegal use of firearms, especially high-caliber pistols by criminals in the city was alarming because the Armed Forces' standard pistol was a FN cal. 32 mm gun.

"We, therefore, need to make everything clear about the possession of guns by individuals," he said.

Servicemen were reportedly involved in recent armed robberies in Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi. Last Friday's murder of a man on the Jagorawi toll road was reportedly masterminded by Armed Forces personnel, who made off with Rp 350 million after the shooting.

The latest criminal case involving guns was the robbery of bank customers in South Jakarta on Tuesday.

No one was reportedly injured when one of two suspects fired a warning shot. The suspects, still at large, made off with Rp 33 million (US$14,165).

A few weeks after an armed robbery at a Hero Supermarket in East Jakarta on May 12, Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso called on retired Armed Forces personnel to surrender their guns.

Eighty-four guns were surrendered by 17 retired Armed Forces personnel, including three generals.

All the pistols and machine guns surrendered were licensed.

The robbery at the Hero supermarket was allegedly carried out by three masked men who stole Rp 260,000. They randomly fired shots from automatic rifles, believed to be FNs and Ak-47s. No one was killed in the robbery. (bsr)