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Police chief: No orders to box in protesters

Thursday, 12 January 2012 08:48am

©The Star (Used by permission)
by JOSEPH SIPALAN

KUALA LUMPUR: The Brickfields police chief has denied ordering his officers to cut off all exits when firing tear gas on protesters at KL Sentral during the Bersih 2.0 rally in July last year.

District OCPD Asst Commissioner Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid said his orders were only to disperse protesters at the exit of the KL Sentral underpass while allowing them ample room to retreat from the underpass entrance at the other end, among other exit points.

He said that at no time did he order any officer to box in the protesters in the underpass, claiming that he did not know at the time that there were officers firing tear gas at the other end.

“I only found out that there were shots fired from the other side (of the underpass) at the end of the operation, not at the time of the operation,” he told a public inquiry yesterday on alleged human rights violations by the authorities during the July 9 rally.

The inquiry, set up by Suhakam, is scheduled to have its next hearing on Jan 18.

Wan Abdul Bari, who was field commander during the crackdown, explained that he had initially deployed five six-man Light Strike Force teams to set up blockades at the various junctions leading to KL Sentral earlier in the day.

The teams were later ordered to gather at the underpass exit to set up a blockade after some 600 protesters had gathered there.

He noted, however, that two of the teams never made it in time.

Wan Abdul Bari said he could not wait for the two other teams to arrive before issuing the order to fire a total of 14 tear gas canisters, as he claimed the protesters' frontlines had formed a human chain allegedly led by PKR vice-president Tian Chua and charged on the police blockade.

Pressed on why he, as field commander, was not aware of the two teams' whereabouts, Wan Abdul Bari said each LSF team leader was authorised to operate independently unless in the presence of a senior officer.

He disclaimed responsibility for the tear gas canisters fired at the other end, repeating that he was unaware that it was happening at the time and that he did not know who fired the canisters.

Wan Abdul Bari did agree with the inquiry panel that they could check the field diaries of the team leaders of the two missing LSF teams to determine their whereabouts and what they were doing at that time.

Questioned by Bar Council representative Syahredzan Johan, who was sitting in as an observer, Wan Abdul Bari said the tear gas was fired in the interest of his officers' safety and also to pre-empt any move by the protesters to regroup.

Wan Abdul Bari pointed out that the reason they used tear gas was also to avoid any physical contact between protesters and the police who, with a team of around 30 officers at the blockade, were severely outnumbered.

Earlier, the inquiry panel heard the account of Bersih 2.0 steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah, who said they did not expect the police to fire tear gas on the protesters at KL Sentral.

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