FAC News - Friday, June 14, 2002 9:04 AM

Kamunting 6 to boycott SUHAKAM inquiry

For 11 days from Wednesday, 10 April 2002, until Sunday, 21 April 2002, six Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees in the Kamunting Detention Center and 15 Reformasi activists, supporters of the six, conducted a hunger strike, amongst others, to protest their detentions under the ISA.

The “Kamunting 6” are National Justice Party Youth Leader Ezam Mohd Nor, Dr Badrulamin Bahron, Saari Sungib, Tian Chua, Lokman Noor Adam and Hishamuddin Rais who were detained over various dates in April 2001 on charges that they are a “threat to national security”.

On the fifth day, Anwar Ibrahim, himself incarcerated in Sungai Buloh Prison for 15 years on trumped-up charges, joined the hunger strike, much to the horror of the Malaysian authorities.

Twice, during the hunger strike, a delegation comprising of family members of the detainees plus officials of the Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) went to meet Malaysia’s Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) to hand over a Memorandum plus discuss issues related to the ISA detentions.

Among the demands of the hunger strike are that the ISA detainees either be released immediately and unconditionally, or be brought to trial if there is any evidence of them having committed a crime. And the “crime” here is their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to bring in guns, bombs, Molotov Cocktails and rocket launchers.

Second on their list of demands is for SUHAKAM to conduct a PUBLIC INQUIRY into the ISA detentions and, third, is for Anwar Ibrahim to be allowed medical treatment overseas for his spinal injury, as recommended by the panel of doctors who had examined him almost TWO YEARS AGO.

SUHAKAM has announced that it will be holding a three-day public inquiry commencing 18 June 2002 as demanded, but it will not be with regards to the ISA detentions. It will be only to assess the treatment of the detainees such as the conditions of their detention, visitation rights, refusal by the authorities to allow them to fulfill their religious obligations and, probably, whether they should be given conjugal visits, and so on.

This is not what the Kamunting 6 demanded. They do not want to dispute their treatment. They want to dispute their detention, and they want the public inquiry to focus on this main issue.

All the ISA detainees in Kamunting have announced that they would boycott the public inquiry if this is what the inquiry is all about, thus throwing a spanner in the works. If SUHAKAM wants to be seen as fulfilling its role as protector of human rights in Malaysia, and not be seen as merely serving the government and offering lip service, it had better reassess its planned public inquiry and revert to what it had promised in April 2002 when the delegation met it to hand it the Memorandum.

SUHAKAM promised, then, it would conduct a public inquiry into the ISA detentions. Why has it changed its mind now? Is it because of the change in leadership?

The hunger strike was suspended on 21 April 2002 to allow SUHAKAM time to conduct this inquiry. If SUHAKAM reneges on its promise now, there is no reason why the hunger strike cannot be re-launched. If it does, this time it’s going to involve not just the ISA detainees and their supporters, but wives and children as well. And the “target”, this time, will be SUHAKAM, for not living up to its promise.

The ball is now at your feet SUHAKAM. You are already being boycotted for 100 days by various Malaysian human rights groups and NGOs. Do you want the public to also declare war on you and conduct a hunger strike against you? This will not auger well for SUHAKAM’s image that is already being suspected of being a government tool.