Silent protest at 10 Downing Street, London for Hindraf 5

Silent Protest in London for HINDRAF 5 on Feb 1st

Photos sent by: John Silva from London

A crowd of more than 100 Malaysian Indians protested in front 10 Downing Street, London today with police permit and later at 2pm, a group of 5 representatives which included Mr Wathya Moorthy were allowed audience with the Prime Minister H.E. Mr Gordan Brown’s representative to present a Petition requesting the British Government, who were responsible for bringing the Indians to work in the rubber plantation and to seek their assistance to ensure that the Malaysian government does not continue to discriminate and marginalise the Indian community any further.

Later at 3pm, the same crowd gathered at the Indian High Commissioner office in London and 5 representatives including Wathya Moorthy were give audience by the Indian High Commissioner to United Kingdom, who was glad to receive the said Petition. .. (article by courtesy by Kamal-Talks )

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Malaysian opposition parties back London protest against Internal Security Act.

Publication: Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

Publication Date: 03-FEB-03

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

January

Kuala Lumpur, 31 January: The National Justice Party [Keadilan] and Malaysian People's Party [PRM] have welcomed and expressed their appreciation to a group of justice lovers who staged a demonstration to protest against the Internal Security Act [ISA] in London on 31 January.

In a joint statement, the respective presidents of Keadilan and PRM, Datin Sri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Dr Syed Husin Ali, reiterated their calls on the Malaysian government to abolish its "iron fist" rule. They also wanted all those detained under the ISA to be released or charged in an open court.

Under the ISA, a person can be detained without trial for an indefinite period which can be increased after every two years.

They said, however, the allegations made against victims of the ISA detainees were baseless and they have never been brought to court to prove their case.

"For example, in the case of Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim, he was not brought to court following his second detention under the ISA. In fact, he was physically assaulted until he had the black eye by Malaysia's then inspector-general of police [IGP] and later, the incident was exposed to the public.

"After the ISA was introduced in 1960, thousands of people were detained under the act and some of them were imprisoned up to 15 years," they affirmed.

Currently, there are hundreds of ISA detainees. Six of them are Keadilan leaders and activists such as Tian Chua, Ezam Mohamad Noor, Dr Badrul Amin, Saari Sungib, Lokman Nor Adam, and Hishamuddin Rais, who have been detained since 10 April 2001.

"They were openly charged by the IGP, without any proof, that they planned to use bombs and mortars to topple the Malaysian Government with violence," Dr Wan Azizah and Dr Syed Husin clarified.

Recently the Federal Court, which is the highest court in the country which heard the detainees' appeal for habeas corpus, decided that the detention of the six was a "mala fide" by the security forces.

"But, unfortunately, the court did not release them and the minister of home affairs seized the opportunity to order an extension of their detention," the two said.

Meanwhile, there are about 70 detainees who have been accused of involvement in religious militant activities. Some of them are planning to apply for the "habeas corpus".

In fact, there was a case whereby a detainee had been released by the court but was re-arrested by the authorities 30 minutes later and sent back to the Kemunting Camp Detention Centre for political detainees.

According to Dr Wan Azizah and Dr Syed Husin, US President George W. Bush's actions in the global war on terror, have led the Malaysian government to exploit them by randomly detaining people under the ISA and accusing them of being involved in militant activities, terrorism, and so on.

"We would like to reiterate our call on the government to abolish immediately the draconian ISA and release the detainees or bring the to court to face justice," the two stressed.

Source: Harakah web site, Kuala Lumpur, in Malay 31 Jan 03

/[c] BBC Monitoring

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