KUALA LUMPUR, 12 December 2004 — Eight alleged militants have been beaten up by authorities in a Malaysian detention camp for terror suspects, a day after a clash that left 20 people injured, their lawyer charged yesterday.
Twelve inmates and eight wardens at the Kamunting detention center in northern Perak state were injured in a scuffle Wednesday after detainees tried to prevent a spot check which turned up a cache of home-made weapons, officials said.
The search was conducted in a block occupied by 12 militants allegedly involved with the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network.
A day after that fracas, lawyer Edmund Bon said a group of 50 officers armed with shields and tear gas stormed another block occupied by 24 alleged JI members — including ex-army officer Yazid Sufaat who has alleged links to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers who attacked New York and Washington.
“At least eight detainees were beaten up. Yazid was handcuffed, spat at and forced to strip. His head and beard were shaved off,” Bon said.
“Eight of them have since been kept in solitary confinement. We urge the government to investigate this matter.”
The lawyer said he was denied access to his clients, but was informed of the abuse by families of five detainees including Yazid following their visit to Kamunting earlier yesterday.
Members of the government-backed National Human Rights Commission on Saturday also visited Kamunting to investigate reports of the assaults, but were not reachable for comment.
Yazid, a US-trained biochemist held since November 2001, is among more than 80 alleged militants held in Malaysia under the Internal Security Act which allows indefinite detention without trial.
Rights groups have urged the government to scrap the legislation but it maintains that it is needed as a first line of defense against terrorism.
Deputy PM Hits
Back at Anwar
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak has hit out at opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, after the latter suggested that Malaysia was less democratic than Indonesia.
“Politics is politics. At the end of the day, what is important is the image of the country,” yesterday’s Star newspaper quoted Najib as saying.
“We need not go overboard with a single dimension, touching on the process of democracy and forgetting or choosing not to touch on Malaysia’s successes.”
He was commenting on Anwar’s remarks on Friday that Indonesia enjoyed freedom of expression that was unrivalled by any other Islamic country.
Winding up a four-day visit to Indonesia, the first since he was freed in September after almost six years in jail, former Deputy Premier Anwar criticized the state of human rights in Malaysia and said there was no press freedom.
Once widely tipped as Malaysia’s next leader before he fell out with then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar has said he now wanted to spend the next year or so on the international stage, trying to improve relations between the West and Islam.
