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Malaysia: Inquiry On Police Violence Upsets Regime
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Malaysia has allowed the very first Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) inquiry on alleged police violence during opposition demonstrations. Leaders of the Malaysian government have publicly showed signs of being upset by the inquiries, which has been going on for a week.
Demonstrators, mostly members and sympathizers of the opposition Alternative Front (AF), have provided graphic details of the violent means used by the Malaysian police force to break down demonstrations.
The current inquiry is focused on a 100,000 people rally for democracy on November 5th on the Kesas highway. Witnesses said demonstrators were repeatedly abused with chemical substances while waiting in a police truck before being driven to the police station.
Other witnesses, including journalists, told the inquiry panel of the SUHAKAM that they saw police in plainclothes vandalizing cars and motor vehicles caught in a large traffic jam during the demonstration.
The inquiry is headed by former chief judge of Malaya, Anuar Zainal Abidin, who said the outcome could be used to sue the police for alleged violence against members of the public who took part in the rally.
In the past, police and the Malaysian government strongly denied violence were used to break peaceful gatherings of opposition parties.
They insisted that opposition members and supporters instead caused rioting and were violent towards the police that always warned them before intervening.
However, witnesses this week said they saw how the police broke private vehicles windscreens and punctured tires.
"There were riot policemen that took to the motorcycle lane kicking the motorcycles until they fell, smashing the side view mirrors and denting the accelerators," one witness said.
The witness also narrated how he tried to assist a car in which the president of the National Justice Party (NJP), Wan Azizah Ismail, was trying to escape from the riot police.
"She closed her face with a handkerchief trying to fight off the effects of the tear gas," he said.
He also described how a police water cannon truck smashed into another car while a journalist said she saw policemen break a car’s windscreens to open the bonnet and tear the battery out of the car.
She also said thirty cars were damaged by plainclothes men carrying rotan sticks, pushing the motorcycles down and vandalizing the cars. She added they punctured tires and broke windscreens.
Most of the cars belonged to “reformasi” supporters who came to the demonstration that Sunday.
A Party Islam Se Malaysia (PAS) Member of Parliament told the inquiry how riot police assaulted him with a rotan stick during the same gathering.
Outspoken and popular Mohamad Sabu said he was hit with the rotan with such force that his comb in his trousers pocket broke.
"I still have some marks on my body," he told the three-member panel of the inquiry.
Sabu, whom the police had codenamed Tango, also said he saw riot police firing tear gas into a crowd gathered at the Kampung Batu 6 near the Kesas highway on that day.
"When I arrived at Kampung Batu 6, there were people running because the riot police were shooting tear gas into the village.
"There were women and children in the crowd and they were screaming and crying. I myself could feel the effects of it," he added.
"When the gas died down a little, I walked forward 100 feet. I screamed at the police to stop from firing any more tear gas because the children were screaming in pain from the tear gas fired," he said.
"Half an hour later, they began shooting again but this time only shot three to four canisters in the kampung," Mohamad added.
When asked by inquiry chairman Abidin if the police had asked the crowd to disperse, Mohamad said that he heard no such warning, adding that the 300- to 400-strong crowd dispersed after saying prayers.
Mohamad added that he was hit when a group of rotan-wielding General Operations Force policemen arrived at the Kota Kemuning toll plaza on the highway.
He said he had also appealed to the police not to assault a woman beside him.
"They took off her headscarf with much force, threw it to the ground and then kicked her and kept on kicking her even when I asked them not to," Sabu said.
Another witness told the inquiry he believed riot police were also aiming at the leaders of the reformasi movement when they shot tear gas cans on the crowd that was gathered around the leaders to hear their discourses.
He also said he tried to prevent riot police from kicking an old man on the highway but he himself was beaten and sprayed with chemical substances which caused strain to his eyes.
These allegations could be used against the police in a court case if the witnesses decide to proceed further. If the case goes to court, it will be very difficult for the police to deny these allegations an observer said.
He added that the recent outburst of the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the inquiry was a sign the government was not at ease over the issue.
On the other hand, the Malaysian opposition is hoping that such inquiries would help to dampen the police’s tendency to use violent means in dispersing “peaceful” gatherings in the future.
SUHAKAM is the only government- and United Nations-sponsored human rights watchdog in the region, and is headed by Musa Hitam, former deputy Prime Minister in Mahathir’s government.
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