16 LAW-ENFORCEMENT EQUIPMENT IN CENTRAL ASIA AND THE SOUTH CAUCASUS Figure 2.8. Turkish-manufactured water cannon © Robin Ballantyne/Omega Research Foundation. V. Riot-control vehicles and water cannons Water-cannon vehicles (see figure 2.8) are designed to disperse crowds using high-velocity streams of water. They are indiscriminate and potentially harmful as the power of the water can knock a person over, push them into fixed objects or pick up loose objects and propel them as missiles. The mixing of water and chemicals, or water and dye, makes it impossible to deliver accurate, targeted doses of the irritant or dye. Evidence from Turkey in 2013 documents individuals who suffered second- and third-degree burns after police mixed pepper spray into the water cannon’s water stream.31 A current case in South Korea has been filed in the Constitutional Court after a number of demonstrators were reported to have sustained injuries when the police used water cannons with PAVA in their water streams.32 A further concern is the use of water cannons in freezing conditions and a number of states prohibit their use in these conditions. At least one protestor was reported to have been killed in Ukraine after being hit by a water cannon’s jet spray in freezing conditions.33 The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights found that the rules governing the use by police of special means to protect public order were initially promulgated in 1991, and subsequently underwent several revisions. The latest revision of those rules took place only recently—on 22 January 2014—when the Government issued Resolutions 13 and 14, which expanded the list of special means to include hand aerosol grenades Dreif-2, stun grenades and hand 31 ‘What is inside the water cannons?’, Wikileaks Supporters Forum, 16 June 2013, <http://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php/topic,19550.0.html>. 32 Kim, K., Demonstrators Injured by Police Water Cannon Bring Case To Constitutional Court, The Hankyoreh, 6 May 2015, <http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/ 689999.html>. 33 Muiznieks, N., Report by Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, following his visit to Ukraine, 4–10 February 2014, <https://wcd.coe.int/ com.instranet.InstraServlet?command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=2562949&SecMod e=1&DocId=2164462&Usage=2>, p. 4, para. 12.