Thursday, October 6, 2011

262 tear gas munitions used on July 9 protesters

Photo & article from http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/177860 (By S Pathmawathy, 6.10.2011)
More than 262 tear gas canisters were used to disperse the Bersih 2.0 rally participants on July 9, a written reply given to Parliament says.
Replying to a question from Segambut DAP parliamentarian Lim Lip Eng, the Home Ministry said 226 tear smoke shells (TS shells) - which are fired with tear-gas launchers - and 36 tear smoke grenades (TS grenades) - which are hand thrown - were used against the protesters. "The costs of the TS shell and TS grenade are RM79.76 and RM135 (each), respectively," Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said. The government spent a total of RM22,855.76 on the ammunition, he said. "Both the tear gas types is made in the United States by ALS Technologies Inc," he added.
Lim had also asked on the total participants arrested during the rally and their breakdown according to gender, race and age, as well as the action taken against them. "A total of 1,509 - 1,412 males and 97 females - were arrested. "From of the total, 1,435 were Malays, 21 Chinese, 29 Indians and 24 others," said Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
Action taken? Unknown
Over half or 761 of the those nabbed were between the age of 11 to 35, while 645 individuals were age 36 to 60. The remaining 103 were above the age of 61. The reply, however, fail to state the action that was taken against them after arrest.
On Tuesday, the government said that it had spent over RM2 million to deploy over 11,000 police personnel to clamp the Bersih 2.0 rally. The amount spent on handling the rally in Kuala Lumpur included deployment of personnel from police contingents nationwide to aid the KL contingent, Hishammuddin had said.
Bersih 2.0 had led more than 10,000 people from across the nation to march the streets of the capital in their demand for electoral reform. The authorities have since been fiercely criticised for their mishandling of the rally while dozens of photographs and videos alledging police abuse had been spread online.
Related news: RM23,000 in tear gas hurled at Bersih marchers http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/rm23000-in-tear-gas-hurled-at-bersih-marchers/
RM22,885 spent on tear gas during Bersih rally, says ministry http://www.thesundaily.my/news/168188
262 rounds of tear gas fired during Bersih 2.0 http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/10/7/parliament/9646808&sec=parliament

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