Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A former Indonesian terrorist, , Umah Abduh, has asked the police to catch terror suspects alive instead of shooting them to death on the spot.

"The police must not follow their killer instinct. They must capture terror suspects alive, not kill them on sight," Umah Abduh said in a public discussion here on Saturday.

Umah who was member of a terrorist group that hijacked a Garuda Indonesia airplane at Bangkok`s Don Muang airport in 1981, criticized the present police`s inclination to terminate terror suspects they were pursuing rather than trying to catch them alive.

In the past, during the New Order era, he said, security forces conducting operations against suspected insurgents or wrongdoers always preferred to take them alive by, for instance, firing only paralyzing shots.

"A terrorist should be shot dead only after a court of law has sentenced him or her to death." he said. Present-day police who were equipped with sophisticated gadgets such as GPS should be able to get close to a terrorist`s nest and catch him or her alive without too much diffculty, he added.

On the same occasion, the National Police`s spokesman, Inspector General Edward Aritonang, refuted Umah Abduh`s view by saying the police had no wish to kill.

He said police always prioritized capturing terror suspects alive.

"We have a doctrine that says capturing a suspect alive is always better. However, if that is not possible, there is no other way but to shoot him or her to death," he said.

Aritonang said conditions in the field were not always as easy as expected. In clashes with police, terror suspects always used weapons such as bombs or guns that could kill or wound police officers.

"We also have to do our best to protect our own personnel from getting shot or wounded," he said. (*)

Editor: Jafar M Sidik
COPYRIGHT © 2012

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