thoughts of a restless mind, rest on a mindless thoughts, mind the rest of my thoughts. This is a home for my writings that don’t have a home just yet.

The announcement came a week late. By this time National Police chief already enforced an internal regulation on the use of firearm in countering public demonstrations and riots.

Although police chief said that officers are only allowed to shoot to immobilize, not to kill but he also said “this new regulation hopefully will eliminate our officers’ doubts in handling anarchy because they were worried before about violating human rights.”

There were two incidents which led up to this regulation. A brawl in front of a court in Jakarta which saw three people dead and a string of attacks against police stations across the country. Angry lawmakers disappointed with police inaction later push for “strict action” the National Police responded by issuing the regulation.

The regulation was instantly met with grave concern from rights group. Poengky Indarti of Imparsial called the regulation “insane.” Indria Fernida of Kontras said that there is no indication that the new regulation complies to the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms.

Imparsial said in June that there have been a least 135 cases of the police using force excessively since 2005. Last week, police in Wamena, Papua, shot and killed three civilians during a brawl. In September, police in Buol, Central Sulawesi, fired shots into a crowd of protesters, killing five people and wounding 23 weeks later police killed two people after a traffic accident spun out of control

There were investigations into the three incidents but everything was done internally and not open for public scrutiny.

I wonder what the families of the May 1998 victims had to say about this regulation. I wonder what the people of Buol think about the regulation too.