CROWD CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES - Omega Research Foundation

police threw tear gas canisters inside the cathedral and then moved in wielding truncheons and
describe how )an elderly opposition MP and several dozen individuals bled profusely as other victims
groaned with pain among the pews.( 401 The police use of tear gas in the All Saints Cathedral was
confirmed by other sources. 402 Following this incident, Amnesty International received the physical
remains of tear gas canisters and plastic baton round canisters that had been used in Kenya. These
canisters were identified as having been manufactured in the United Kingdom. 403 The use of tear gas
within confined spaces or when people cannot physically leave an area could be seen as a form of
punishment rather than dispersal. When tear gas has been used in these type of circumstances a
number of severe injuries and death have been attributed to it. 404 405 It also appears that when the
Kenyan police and security units have deployed tear gas, it is not used instead of physical beatings with
batons, sticks or canes or as an alternative to lethal force but rather as an additional form of
punishment. Following campaigning by human rights organisations, the British government announced
in March 1998 that since election on May 1st, 1997, it had rejected 1.5 million worth of applications to
export certain types of riot control equipment, including batons and tear gas, to the Kenyan police. 406
Unfortunately, during 1998 human rights organisations continued to receive reports of human rights
violations by the Kenyan security forces and remained concerned over the abuse of security equipment
such as tear gas and plastic bullets in Kenya. Reports emerged of the violent suppression of a
nationwide teachers strike in October 1998. The 6th October 1998 edition of the Daily Nation reports
how police and members of the GSU (General Security Unit) attacked teachers with tear gas, whips
and rungus (clubs). According to the report at least ten teachers in Thika district were injured and
required treatment by the Kenyan Red Cross Society after being tear gassed by police. 407 It was
reported in January 1999 that Kenyan riot police had used rubber bullets, teargas, baton charges and
water cannon against students trying to plant trees in protest against deforestation. The report
described the water cannon as spraying )acidic water( which probably denotes the use of chemical
irritants in the water jet. 408
On 10 June 1999, Amnesty International researchers witnessed around 2,000 peaceful protestors,
led by human rights and church groups, demonstrate for peaceful democratic change in Kenya. One
hundred yards from the Parliament building the head of the demonstration was stopped by a wall of
police armed with riot shields and batons. The peaceful protestors sat on the ground and started to
sing Christian songs. After less than 10 minutes police on horseback emerged and rode into the crowd
of protestors, followed by police on foot who beat the peaceful crowd with sticks. The crowd reacted
angrily, and some threw stones at the police. The police responded by firing tear gas into the crowd
and the church grounds where some of the protestors had retreated to. 409 Over 100 canisters were
fired in one hour. The police later moved in with water-cannon which fired a mixture of water and tear
gas, reportedly an irritant and a dye.
From the witness testimony and the physical remains of canisters, Amnesty International was able
to identify that the manufacturer of the tear gas was a French-based company, Nobel Securite (formerly
SNPE). 410 Further press reports suggested that the water cannon had been shipped to Kenya from
either South Africa, Israel or France. 411 So even though the United Kingdom had refused export
licences for tear gas and other riot control equipment to Kenya at least one French company stepped in
to fill the vacuum.
8.3 Indonesia. Over the last 20 years the international media and human rights organisations have
documented numerous incidents where the Indonesian security forces have deployed both crowd
control weapons and lethal force, often with severe consequences for peaceful protestors. However,
with the exception of water cannon, what is striking is the lack of hard data on specific transfers of such
crowd control weapons.
The Indonesian security forces have deployed chemical irritants (CS), plastic baton rounds and
water cannon that spray a mixture of water, chemical irritant and marker dye. 412 Both German and UK
water cannon were identified as being deployed on the streets of Bandung in July 1996. 413 The German
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