More than 120,000 people have been injured by tear gas or rubber bullets fired by police during protests around the world since 2015, according to a report released Wednesday.
The Physicians for Human Rights association, the International Network of Civil Rights Organizations (Inclo) and the British Omega Foundation analyzed the medical reports produced, among other acts, during the ‘yellow vests’ movement in France, the anti-racist marches’ Black Lives Matter’ or pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and Myanmar (formerly Burma).
Based on this fragmentary information, the report of these associations – “Lethal in dressing” (Disguised death, in Portuguese) describes the health impact of non-lethal weapons used by police forces around the world compared to the “legitimate exercise of a democratic right”.
According to the report, tear gas and other chemical irritants have injured 119,113 people in the past seven years, 4% of whom required hospitalization or surgery.
At least 14 people have died after inhaling these gases.
The so-called defensive projectiles, including rubber bullets, injured 2,190 people, 65% of them in the eyes.
At least 945 were left with fatal injuries and 12 died after that impact, say the authors of the report, which also describe the consequences of stun grenades, water cannons or batons.
For these organizations, the forces of order, even in democratic countries, tend to abuse their power in the face of the protest movements that have multiplied since the beginning of the 21st century.
Instead of dispersing the crowds, the action “often leads to a flare-up in tensions and an escalation of conflicts,” lamented the authors of the report, who recommend better regulation of these weapons, better training of agents in its use and not an indiscriminate use.
“I have been working on crowd control weapons and their impact for ten years and remain appalled by the lack of data and transparency from manufacturers,” said ER doctor Rohini Haar, lead author of the report.
Despite its frequent use around the world, “there is no significant regulation or data recording obligation for police forces in the vast majority of countries,” he lamented.
Source: TSF
