Police to Withdraw Civilians’ Firearms Soon
Wednesday, 20 December, 2006 | 13:49 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Starting from the end of this December, the Indonesian National Police (Polri) HQ will withdraw the 17,516 firearms owned by civilians.

Of this amount, 4,759 firearms are to be collected from those whose licenses are due ot those who hand them in voluntarily.

Polri decided not to extend all licenses for firearms owned by civilians.

“This policy is related to an evaluation of the license process that has not been accurate so far,” said Ins. Gen. Sisno Adiwinoto, Head of Polri Public Relations, yesterday (19/12).

The evaluation was carried out after Polri saw that there was a tendency for increased firearms abuse and a need to repair the internal system related to license processing at police stations.

“A lot of the owners have licenses, but all the requirements were arranged by weapons dealers,” said Sisno.

This has created difficulties for the police to make checks when licenses were extended.

According to Sisno, there are also many firearms with expired license that have not been extended or reported.
“Many firearms are also used for showing off,” he said.

In addition to firearms for the military and the official government institutions, up until now firearms could be owned by people with professions or posts regarded as quite dangerous so that they need firearms for self defense.

However, in practice, said Sisno, “There are people whose job status is dubious.”

A former firearms agent, Col. (retired) TNI (Indonesian Military) Firos Fauzan, said he supported the police’s measure.

He acknowledged that he had sold firearms together by utilizing the service of licensing administration at police stations.

“A lot of firearms owners have never even practiced shooting,” he said.

In Blora, Central Java, the police has distributed an appeal to 16 firearms owners in the area, but only four firearms have been collected.

According to Adjt Comm. Iskandar Zulkar Pane, Head of the Crime Research Unit at Blora Regional Police, Blora Regent Basuki Widodo and Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) Chairman Warsit are included among those who have not handed in their firearms.

Yophiandi, Choirul and Sudjatmiko