The Ministry of Interior is preparing amendments to the Law on Police, which, among other things, will terminate the use of rubber bullets and electric paralysers for breaking up crowds and violent protests.
Rubber bullets and electric paralysers became part of the police’s equipment with the amendments to the Law on Police, which Parliament voted in with 59 votes in favor, in March, 2015.
With the new amendments, which are being prepared, Article 91 of the Law on Police, which regulates the use of these funds, is divided into two paragraphs. The first states that “in case of the violation of public order and peace on a large scale, for means of force, the following can be used: physical force, police batons, means for binding persons (handcuffs), devices for forcibly stopping vehicles and police dogs”.
In paragraph 2, it is added that “in addition to the means of force referred to in paragraph 1, special vehicles for public order and peace, pyrotechnic-explosive devices and certain chemicals may be used.”
Rubber bullets and electric paralysers are not part of the means of force, that is, they will be excluded from use.
Otherwise, the introduction of rubber bullets and electric paralysers in 2015, during the severe political crisis and protests after the publications of the wiretapped conversations by the then opposition, SDSM, was met with fierce public reaction.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time defended these measures on the grounds that the police must have the means to defend themselves from violence and that it is not good that there are so many policemen with injuries.
