| |
Annual
Report 2002
Preface
AI's
appeals for action
Foreword
Introduction
Press
Materials
Regional
Summaries Africa
Americas
Asia
and the Pacific
Europe
Middle
East and North Africa
Regional
Indexes
Africa
Americas
Asia and
the Pacific
Europe
Middle
East and North Africa
What
is AI?
AI
in Action
International
and regional organizations
Selected
human rights treaties (pdf)
Order
the report |
Covering events from January - December
2001
MALAYSIA
Malaysia
Head of state:
Raja Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin (replaced
Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in
December)
Head of
government: Mahathir
Mohamad
Capital: Kuala Lumpur
Population: 22.6
million
Official
language: Bahasa
Malaysia
Death
penalty: retentionist |
|
Opposition activists and suspected Islamic ''extremists'' were
arrested and detained without trial under the Internal Security Act
(ISA) and were at risk of torture or ill-treatment. Peaceful
demonstrations were dispersed with excessive force and protesters
arrested, detained and ill-treated. Students and academics faced
penalties for peaceful political activity. Politically motivated
prosecutions were pursued against opposition figures. A number of
judicial decisions and the activities of the Human Rights Commission
of Malaysia were perceived as bolstering respect for human rights
principles.
Background
The ruling Barisan National
(National Front) coalition continued to dominate the political scene
and won 60 of 62 seats in the November state elections in Sarawak.
Peaceful public assemblies and demonstrations were forcibly
dispersed by police throughout the year. From April, after Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad stated that the government would break
from international human rights norms to preserve national
stability, a series of opposition activists and suspected Islamic
''extremists'' were detained without trial under the ISA. A
coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups formed to
campaign against the detentions. Following the attacks in the USA on
11 September, the government justified past use of the ISA and
announced it may amend it and other laws to combat ''terrorism''.
Detention without trial under the ISA
The ISA
allows the detention without trial for up to two years, renewable
indefinitely, of any person considered by the authorities to be a
potential threat to national security or public order. ISA detainees
reported that they were subjected to intimidation and intense
psychological pressure, at times amounting to torture. In the
initial period of police investigation, detainees were held in
solitary confinement and denied access to lawyers, family members
and independent doctors. Isolated and induced to fear for the
well-being of their families, the detainees were threatened with
indefinite detention unless they cooperated and ''confessed''.
- Three members of the minority Shia Muslim community reportedly
remained in detention during most of 2001. The reasons for their
detention were not made public. They were among six members of the
community who were arrested under the ISA from late
2000.
Keadilan activists and
others
In April a human rights defender and nine
political activists, mostly senior members of the opposition
Parti Keadilan Nasional, National Justice Party, were
arrested under the ISA and accused of planning to overthrow the
government by ''militant'' means including violent demonstrations.
No evidence to support these allegations was made public.
The
detainees were prisoners of conscience. In June, four of them were
released while six others, Tian Chua, Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor, Haji
Saari Sungib, Badrul Amin Bahron, Lokman Nor Adam and Hishamuddin
Rais, were served with two-year detention orders. Badrul Amin Bahron
was released in November, but was rearrested in December and charged
with breaking the terms of a restriction order barring him from
political activity and severely limiting his freedom of movement and
association.
PAS members and others accused of Islamic
'extremism'
In August, 10 men, including at least seven
members of the main opposition party Parti Islam seMalaysia
(PAS), Islamic Party of Malaysia, were arrested under the ISA and
accused of links with a local Islamic ''extremist'' group,
Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM), Malaysia Mujahidin Group.
Reported KMM members were alleged by the government to have
received religious and military training in Afghanistan and to
have planned to violently overthrow the government in order to set
up an Islamic state.
After being held incommunicado for over
50 days, nine of the detainees were served with two-year detention
orders. In October, six other men, mostly religious teachers at
Islamic schools, were also detained and held incommunicado for over
three weeks. Five of them were subsequently served with two-year
detention orders. The authorities linked all these arrests to the
detention under the ISA in June of at least six alleged Islamic
''extremists'' accused of various crimes, including murder, bank
robberies and the bombing of a church and a Hindu temple. By the end
of the year, at least seven other alleged Islamic militants, accused
of having links with ''international terrorism'', were detained
under the ISA as arrests continued.
Freedom of
assembly
The authorities continued to impose restrictions
on the right of peaceful assembly and association. A series of
demonstrations against the ISA, or in support of political reform
and Anwar Ibrahim (see below), were dispersed by police, at times
with excessive force. Protesters were arrested and assaulted, held
in remand for up to 14 days and charged with illegal assembly.
Permits for public assemblies were issued or refused arbitrarily and
selectively, and in July police issued a ban on all public political
rallies.
Students and academics engaging in demonstrations
and other political activity also faced penalties under the
Universities and University Colleges Act. In June, following the
arrest for illegal assembly of seven students who participated in a
peaceful demonstration, a number of the students were expelled or
suspended from their universities. In July, two students involved in
peaceful campaigning against the ISA were arrested and detained
incommunicado under the ISA for 10 and 23 days respectively.
- In August a schoolteacher was charged with sedition for
setting an examination question to discuss the effectiveness of
the Malaysian judiciary.
- In October the authorities announced that 61 university
lecturers had been dismissed, transferred or issued with warnings
for alleged ''anti-government activities''.
The
judiciary
In late 2000 the newly appointed Chief Justice,
Mohamad Dzaiddin Abdullah, pledged to address a decline of public
confidence in the independence and effectiveness of the judiciary.
In February the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee submitted a memorandum
listing a series of defects in the administration of justice and
proposing reforms. In March the Chief Justice recommended limits on
the size of defamation awards to avoid unjustified curbs on freedom
of speech.
- In May a High Court upheld the habeas corpus petition of two
people detained under the ISA and ordered their release after
ruling that their detention was unlawful. The Court affirmed
fundamental constitutional principles and urged parliament to
review the relevance of the ISA. The police appealed against the
ruling. Habeas corpus petitions by other ISA detainees were
rejected and remained under appeal before the Federal Court at the
end of the year.
- In June the Federal Court quashed a conviction for contempt of
court previously upheld by the Court of Appeal against Zainur
Zakaria, one of Anwar Ibrahim's defence lawyers. He had filed an
affidavit in court in 1998 alleging that two public prosecutors
had attempted to fabricate evidence against his
client.
Prosecution of opposition
figures
Selective and politically motivated prosecutions
were threatened or pursued against opposition figures.
- In March Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor, leader of the youth branch of
Keadilan, was arrested and charged under the Sedition Act
for allegedly planning violent demonstrations. In April he was
detained without trial under the ISA. In October a court dropped
charges against him of participating in an illegal assembly in
April. In November Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor went on trial under the
Official Secrets Act for distributing allegedly classified
documents about official corruption to journalists in 1999.
- Prisoner of conscience Anwar Ibrahim lodged an appeal against
his sentence of nine years' imprisonment on charges of sodomy,
imposed after an unfair trial in 2000. The sentence was being
served consecutively with a six-year sentence for alleged abuse of
power, which remained under appeal before the Federal Court at the
end of the year.
National Human Rights Commission
In April the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia
(Suhakam) submitted its first annual report to parliament,
detailing the activities of its working groups, including those
addressing law reform, human rights education and complaints.
Initial recommendations included ratification of major international
human rights instruments, review of restrictive laws including the
ISA, and constitutional changes to combat gender discrimination. In
April Suhakam called for the release of recently arrested ISA
detainees and asserted their right to a trial. In July it reported
on the arbitrary and selective application of laws restricting
freedom of assembly, and recommended specific legislative amendments
and enhanced liaison between the police and public assembly
organizers.
In August Suhakam issued the findings of a
public inquiry into the dispersal of a peaceful demonstration in
November 2000. Suhakam found the police were responsible for
human rights violations including excessive use of force during
dispersals, assaults on detainees and delays in the provision of
medical care; it gave detailed recommendations for reform of police
policy and practice.
The government pledged to study some of
Suhakam's recommendations. However, its responses to
Suhakam's findings during the year were frequently
dismissive and included public statements that its reports were
''biased'' and ''idealistic''.
Death penalty and corporal
punishment
Four people convicted of murder and a man
convicted of drugs trafficking were executed by hanging. At least
three people were sentenced to death, and at least 159 were reported
to be on death row. Caning, a cruel, inhuman or degrading
punishment, was imposed throughout 2001 as an additional punishment
to imprisonment.
AI country
reports/visits
Reports
Visits
An AI
delegate visited Malaysia in April to conduct research and met
relatives of those detained under the ISA.
|