Police: Tear gas the only option

By MAY SALITAH
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The Brickfields police chief claimed that firing tear gas was the only option to disperse protesters at KL Sentral during the Bersih 2.0 rally.
Asst Comm Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid said his orders in July last year was also to pre-empt any move by the protesters to regroup.
“I made sure there was a distance between the crowd and the five six-man Light Strike Force (LSF) teams to avoid physical contact between the two groups that could lead to injuries,” he told a public inquiry yesterday at Suhakam, on alleged human rights violations by the authorities during the July 9 rally.
The public inquiry displayed video footage from YouTube and the Royal Malaysian Police that showed two incidents in front of the KL Sentral building and at the entrance of the underpass below it.
The first video showed the protesters gathered at the entrance of the KL Sentral building and only dispersed after ACP Wan Abdul Bari, who was the field commander during the crackdown, gave out numerous warnings and threatened them with arrest.
However, the footage at the entrance of the underpass showed that the crowd seemed to ignore his warnings and formed a human chain allegedly led by PKR vice-president Tian Chua which charged at the police blockade.
“As you can see in the video, I gave them nine warnings although the law states that I should only give three warnings before taking any relevant action,” he said.
ACP Wan Abdul Bari disagreed when the panel led by commissioner Datuk Dr Khaw Lake Tee, suggested that the tear gas pellets fired could have hit one of the protesters.
He said his specific instructions was to aim at the ground in front of the crowd to stop them from marching forward.
It was also to ensure the pellets would not go into the tunnel or hit anyone.

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Wednesday, April 18, 2012