ILLEGAL LPG INJECTORS TO FACE SEVERE PUNISHMENT

Jakarta, 6/9 (ANTARA) - Illegal LPG injection business operators will be punished severely because their acts threaten the lives of lots of people, an Indonesian police officer said.

Chief of the National Police's Detective and Anti-Crime Division Commissioner General Ito Sumardi said those involved in illegal LPG injections would be indicted on multiple charges.

Speaking to journalists after attending a meeting, chaired by Vice President Boediono here Monday, he said the multiple charges were meant as a deterrent to the public.

He said police launched continuous raids to crush those involving in the illegal LPG injection business activities.

"The suspects can be threatened with theft charges and, if the victims die or get wounded, the doers can be punished with murder charges," he said.

With these multiple charges, the illegal LPG injection cases could be minimized in Indonesia because these crimes had contributed to the gas canister blasts, Ito Sumardi said.

"Please inform the police if our society members know or find those doing the illegal LPG injections in their neighborhood," he said.

Last weekend, police in Tabanan, Bali Province, had arrested Agus Sumariana, 35, and his eight workers for their alleged involvement in an illegal LPG injection business.

Police officers raided a factory in Banjar Kukub hamlet, Perean Tengah village, Baturiti sub-district, Tabanan district that Agus had used to run his illegal LPG injection business on early Saturday.

The suspects were threatened with six years in jail and fine of Rp60 billion if the court found them guilty.

Since the government began implementing its kerosene-to-LPG conversion plan in 2007, at least 45 million packages of gas stoves and three-kilogram gas cylinders have been distributed to the people.

Since then, LPG canister explosions had increased in various parts of Indonesia. One of the causes was related to gas canister whose volume might have been removed and injected illegally.

In response to the deadly gas canister blasts occurring in various parts of Indonesia over the past months, the government had promised to withdraw all damaged and poor quality gas canisters.

By July 2010, the government had reportedly taken a million LPG canisters from the market to be replaced with good ones.

Besides that, the government was also committed to conducting door-to-door and community-to-community familiarization programs so that gas stove users would understand the safest way of using LPG.

In dealing with the problem, President Yudhoyono had proposed that the LPG aroma be made more smelly to enable gas stove users to detect leaking LPG cylinders.

President Yudhoyono also underlined the importance of public awareness campaigns by issuing "secure gas use" posters.