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Video clip prompts calls for inquiry

An undated combo picture released on Thursday by Malaysian parliament members shows a semi-naked female Chinese national who is instructed to do squats by Malaysian policewomen in a lock-up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. PHOTO: EPA

An opposition lawmaker in Malaysia led calls for an immediate inquiry to be launched yesterday over a video of a naked female detainee being forced to perform squats while a policewoman looks on.

Opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok said the video clip tarnished the image of predominantly Muslim Malaysia.

"It is definitely a great embarrassment to our country. Yes, it is our own Abu Ghraib," she said, referring to the Iraqi prison abuse scandal that led to a major internal US military investigation.

In an immediate reaction, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said Malaysia would not protect the perpetrators and vowed to carry out an investigation.

"It should not have happened. It has dealt a severe blow to our country's image. This is the first time there has been video evidence and a thorough investigation must be conducted," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Yeo Yang Poh, chairman of Bar Council Malaysia, said that when the Abu Ghraib pictures surfaced, Malaysia joined the rest of the world to demand an immediate, independent, thorough, transparent and accountable inquiry.

"We cannot demand anything less, with regard to our own domestic scandal. It is a disgusting movie of one human being, having forsaken all sense of decency, treating another human being [over whom she had control], in a degrading, humiliating and wanton manner," he said in a statement.

Yeo demanded an independent investigation after local media reported that police were investigating the authenticity and source of the video footage, said to have been taken by a mobile phone camera.

The woman prisoner, apparently of Chinese ethnicity, has not yet been identified.
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