Chemical weapons users to face death

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 02/20/2008 1:18 PM | National

The House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a bill that threatens the death sentence to individuals who develop, produce and possess chemical weapons.

The bill says the use, transfer and acts to facilitate the use of chemical weapons will be punishable by sentences ranging from four years' imprisonment to capital punishment.

The bill also bans individuals from involvement in the use of chemical weapons for military purposes.

In case of the misuse of chemicals by a corporation, owners or management board members will be held responsible for the crime. The government is authorized to seize the assets, close down plants and revoke operational licenses of a firm found guilty.

While the bill bans trafficking of deadly toxic chemicals, it orders the strict control of the use of the least dangerous chemicals for industrial, medical, research, agricultural, pharmaceutical and defense purposes.

To control the use, production, import and export of the chemicals, the bill prescribes a national authority led by a minister and answering to the president.

The bill also says Indonesia is open to international verification teams, whose inspections here must be conducted in the presence of a national team appointed by the national authority.

The bill was drafted to augment the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, which Indonesia ratified in 1998.

As of 2007, a total of 182 countries had signed the convention as part of the global disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. The bill also reflected Indonesia's need to prevent the misuse of chemical weapons by terrorist groups or transnational criminals.

All factions at the House expressed in their final views their full support for the bill.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction stressed in its acceptance statement the urgent need for the government to issue regulations to implement the law. (alf)

Comments (0) | Post comment

A | A | A |