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Malay prisoners treated `less than human': watchdog

Riot police stand guard outside the Kemunting detention camp during an anti-internal security act protest in Taiping, Malaysia, on Saturday. PHOTO: AP

Muslim terrorist suspects and others jailed without trial in Malaysia are treated as "less than human" at a notorious prison camp, where one inmate recounted being beaten, stripped naked and forced to crawl while being kicked on the buttocks, international watchdog Human Rights Watch says.

In a report that was released last Wednesday, the New York-based group called on the Malaysian government to repeal the Internal Security Act, which allows authorities to detain individuals indefinitely without charge, calling it a "recipe for abuse."

Instead, Malaysia should rely on its "robust criminal law and capable judiciary" to tackle security, said the report, based on handwritten statements from the detainees, and interviews with their family and lawyers.

Sign of repression

"Malaysia aspires to be a leader in the region and a developed country by 2020," said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division. "The ISA is not a sign of leadership or development, it is a sign of repression."

Malaysia rejected the criticism, and said even Britain and the US are tightening anti-terror laws to copy the ISA.

The rights group's report documents the stories of more than 25 detainees in Kamunting Detention Center, a compound of wooden and concrete buildings surrounded by a 4m-high fence topped by barbed wire, 250km north of Kuala Lumpur.

Al-qaeda-linked

Most of the 112 people currently detained there are alleged members of al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah and another alleged militant organization, Kampulan Mujahideen Malaysia, who were arrested in a crackdown launched four years ago. None has been charged or tried.

"Those held under the ISA are defined as a group that has virtually no rights, so it is hardly surprising that prison guards treat them as less than human," Adams said.

The report cited the case of Mohamad Faiq bin Hafidh, who has been detained since January 2002.

No effective recourse

Describing the events of Dec. 8 and 9, 2004 to Human Rights Watch, Mohamad wrote: "I was handcuffed ... and my head was pushed down to waist level. My head was struck with a baton ... I was continuously beaten and then forced to strip naked, ordered to crawl while entering the room and then my buttocks were kicked and that was how I stumbled inside, naked."

The report said that ISA detainees have no effective recourse to challenge their detention because the law prevents the courts from reviewing the merits of ISA detentions.

Human Rights Watch said that even long-term critics of the ISA, notably the US, have been silent on its use since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC.

Zainal Abidin, a ministerial ranking official in the Malaysian Foreign Ministry, said that strong laws are needed in the post-Sept. 11 climate.

ISA is "still very relevant to Malaysia especially in the face of the global threat of terrorism. Even other countries like the US and Britain are beginning to copy our ISA," he told reporters.

He declined to address specific allegations of abuse of prisoners.

"Our ministers and deputy ministers visit the camp from time to time to look into any complaints," Zainal said. "I don't think there is any abuse."
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