Police Lockups - Malaysia's Mini Guantanamos Where Cops Beat, Abuse & Splash Hot Water On Suspects

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or individuals should not politicise the issue of police personnel allegedly abusing and pouring hot water on carpark attendant B. Prabakar.

Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Director Datuk Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin made this appeal after 35 people from certain NGOs and political parties came to the Brickfields police headquarters with Prabakar to lodge another report this morning.

He said the man complained that police had not taken action on his earlier report and did not inform him of the development of the case.

"Today, Prabakar submitted 10 names said to be involved in the incident and we will call them to give statement.

"Yesterday alone the police had called him to make six identification sessions involving hundreds of police personnel," he said at the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters.

He said that so far, the police had recorded 22 witness statements regarding the case including from two doctors, one from a government hospital while the other a private hospital.

Bakri said the allegation by some NGOs that police had their own agenda was not true because the police had to fair in their investigation and they must be given space to conduct the probe.

"If Prabakar has new issues, he can see the investigating officer but he does not need to bring along NGOs and politicians," he said.

Prabakar was picked up by police at his work place in Sri Hartamas about 9.30pm on Dec 23 to assist in the investigation into a robbery and taken to the Brickfields police headquarters for questioning.

While in custody, he was allegedly beaten up and splashed with hot water by 10 police personnel including a sergeant.

Two days after his release on Dec 28, he lodged a police report, claiming among others that he was offered RM500 to keep his mouth shut but he did not take the money. (Bernama)

***** How does the government expect the average citizen to have any respect or trust for the police as long as torturers and thugs are part of the force?

Malaysian School Teachers Beat Up Indian Kids Black-And-Blue, Call Derogatory Names

Over the past almost one year, incidents of school teachers physically abusing students of Indian origin have been on the rise in Malaysia, and in some instances, teachers even called the Indian students by derogatory names.

The school teachers have reportedly acquired the hate-Indian students attitude after the transfer of a school teacher from a secondary school in Banting, who is now facing an inquiry after she admitted to leveling racial slurs against Indian students.

Several parents of such children here have lodged police reports since November last year alleging that as many as five school teachers had physically and verbally abused Indian students.

R. Sathasnam (52) said that he and another parent had complained to the schools administration repeatedly, but the abuses still continue. He alleged that these five teachers regularly hit the students and told them to transfer out of the school, as they (the teachers) were fed-up of seeing their faces. One of the teachers called some Indian students derogatory names, alleged Sathasnam.

He alleged that many Indian students were slapped, kicked, punched and caned by these teachers for misdemeanours such as talking while lining-up to enter the classroom.

My 10-year-old son was lifted-up by the ears by a male teacher and slapped and kicked for talking before entering the classroom after recess in February, staronline.com quoted Sathasnam as saying.

He claimed his sons ears turned blue-black and his cheeks swelled after the beating. When he rushed his son to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital , the doctor there advised him to file a police report. Another parent R. Viganaspary, 40, said her son was repeatedly hit on the head with a rolled-up newspaper and caned on the legs for not having a particular exercise book.

Meanwhile, Coalition of Malaysian Indian NGOs secretary Gunaraj George, who met Sathasnam and Viganaspary recently, said the coalition would present a memorandum on the matter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi soon. These are young impressionable children and the alleged incidents will only teach them to hate, he said.

Malaysian Deputy Minister and Senator T. Murugiah promised to look into these cases and speak to the principal next week when school reopens. Deputy Education Minister Dr Wee Ka Siong also said that he would comment only after he had seen copies of the police reports. (ANI)

***** Are we really surprised or shocked? That racist and religious chauvinists, misfits and nutcases have infested the teaching fraternity is well known. However the irresponsible tidak apa stance and reaction of the education department is deplorable.

Imagine if the same thing had happened to students of the 'other' race. By now the minister and his officials would have paid televised visits to the home of those students, given them some financial compensation and heads would have rolled. But since the victims are 'only' Indians, the authorities could not be the least bit bothered. Which begs the question, are these education department buggers any less racist than the psychiatric screwballs perpetrating violence with impunity on their students?

Malaysian Student's Mother Makes Tearful Plea Over Son's Assault In Melbourne

From THE AGE, Australia

The mother of a Malaysian student attacked by a group of men in Melbourne's CBD last Friday, leaving him in an induced coma for several days, has broken down in tears while speaking about her son.

Kevindra Joseph, 19, was lost and asking a friend for directions on a mobile phone when he was attacked by a group of men in Little Lonsdale Street, near the intersection of Russell Street, about 2.50am, police said today.

The engineering student, who had been in Australia for about a month, was found unconscious on the footpath and spent several days in an induced coma at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He remains in hospital.

Police today released images of two men they believe can assist them with their inquiries, and appealed for witnesses to come forward.

His mother, Rohini Devi, today made a tearful appeal for information about her son's attack. (You can read the full report HERE)

***** As early as May this year there had been many reports of racist assaults on foreign students including at least eight Indian students who were attacked in the month of May 2008 in Melbourne alone.

According to the news.com.au website, seventeen foreign students have died in Victoria in the past year from boarding home fires, murders, car crashes and drowning.

These incidents were well publicised and the serious risks involved in being out alone late at night is common knowledge. Vicious assaults especially in Melbourne’s central business district (CBD) are common after dark and police have issued warnings about walking alone at night. Therefore one must ask why this young man was so foolish in venturing out at the unearthly time of 2.50am?

Indonesia Becoming Terrorist Complacent; Malaysian Government Fuelling Radical Islam - Study

The decline of the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has led some Indonesian political leaders to believe that further counter-terrorism measures are unnecessary, a new study says.

Security experts Dr Carl Ungerer and Dr Peter Chalk also warn that Malaysian ruling party polemics, designed to win the ethnic Malay vote, appeared to be producing an environment conducive to the emergence of Islamic extremism.

The study, released on Wednesday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) surveyed the evolving terrorist threat in Southeast Asia.

That includes Muslim radical movements in the Philippines and southern Thailand, but most importantly for Australia, the activities of JI in Indonesia.

JI is blamed for terrorist attacks on Bali in October 2002, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians, and in October 2005 which killed 23 including four Australians.

JI also is blamed for the attacks on the Jakarta Marriott Hotel in August 2003 and on the Australian embassy in Jakarta in September 2004. Each attack killed 11.

The study said JI had been hard hit by Indonesian security forces, assisted by Australia, with key members captured or killed. It had now split into a small pro-bombing group and another, more moderate group.

Dr Ungerer and Dr Chalk said JI could still count on a hard core of 900 militants and continued to represent a significant threat to Australian and regional security interests.

"Complacency will remain one of the biggest challenges Australia faces in pursuing its counter-terrorism strategies in the region. There are already some signs of this in Indonesia," they said.

"According to one Indonesian analyst, elements of the political leadership in Jakarta believe that the terrorist problem has diminished and that further counter-terrorism initiatives against JI are unwarranted or, at the very least, are unnecessary.

"Moreover, there appears to be little genuine effort across the Indonesian government to understand the underlying support dynamics or the continuing role of religious schools associated with the JI movement and affiliated jihadist groups."

Dr Ungerer and Dr Chalk said Australia needed to pay close attention to the internal dynamics of states not presently afflicted by Muslim conflicts.

Cambodia had been identified as a potential extremist logistics hub because of lax border controls, endemic corruption, entrenched criminal activity and the presence of a substantial Muslim population.

They said another state to watch was Malaysia, praised for its effective counter-terrorism stance, but which produced some of JI's most infamous leaders. "It has become increasingly apparent that radical Islam is being fuelled, somewhat paradoxically, by the policies of the central administration," they said.

"Various commentators have observed that a troubling enabling environment for extremism may have begun to surface as a result of the polemics of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, which aims to give institutional expression to a more fundamentalist ideology in order to win the Malay ethnic vote and, thereby, outflank the Parti Se-Islam Malaysia opposition." (THE AGE, Australia)

***** The irony is that Pak Lah's much touted Islam Hadhari was to supposed to usher in a more moderate face of the religion. Instead, like the state of our politics, the reverse seems to be the reality. What our PM had intended to do and what really happened are glaring opposites. Eliminate corruption he said, but we are deeply entrenched in slime at the moment. He talked the talked, but when push came to shove he didn't walk, he balked. And therein lies the tragedy of good intentions, roughly wrestled down and shattered by a lack of genuine leadership.

Chinese Anger And Terror Warnings Cloud Olympics

China said it was outraged by a resolution by U.S. lawmakers urging an end to a crackdown in Tibet as a Beijing-run newspaper linked al Qaeda to claimed plots to attack the Beijing Olympics.

The condemnation came in response to a U.S. House of Representatives resolution urging China to open dialogue with the Dalai Lama, end a crackdown on nonviolent Tibetan protesters and halt repression in the region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said her government was "strongly indignant and resolutely opposed" to the resolution passed on Wednesday with the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Jiang said the U.S. lawmakers should instead direct their ire at what Beijing calls the Dalai Lama's clique, which China has blamed for deadly rioting in Tibet's regional capital, Lhasa, on March 14 and subsequent protests.

"It is confusing black with white and is vicious-minded of certain members of the U.S. House of Representatives to not only fail to condemn the attacks, smashing, looting and arson in Lhasa ... but rather to point the spear at the Chinese government and people," Jiang said.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has rejected claims that he orchestrated the violence, and Western governments have urged China to open up conciliatory contacts.

But China has underscored the gulf in perceptions over Tibet by saying that groups campaigning for independence there have joined militant Muslim Uighurs fighting for an independent "East Turkestan" in the northwest region of Xinjiang.

China said on Thursday it had foiled "terrorist" plots to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide attacks around the Beijing Olympics in August.

COLLUSION

The Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong newspaper backed by the mainland, said Uighur extremists were colluding with the exiled Tibetan Youth Congress and even al Qaeda to target the games. "Al Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and Tibetan Youth Congress are all planning to make the Beijing Olympic Games the target of terror attacks, and have strengthened collusion and collaboration," the paper said in a commentary. The Dalai clique is not only implicated with al Qaeda, it is colluding with the East Turkestan organization ."

Human rights groups have said Beijing is using the perceived terror threats, denied by exiled Uighur groups, to justify tough controls in Xinjiang.

Konchok Yangphel, a New Delhi-based spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress, said the Wen Wei Po report was ridiculous. "We are trying to stick to nonviolence and demonstrations and have not engaged in violence," he said by telephone. But he said the group did not rule out the possibility of violence in Tibet "if people are forced by Chinese violence."

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said he was happy with how preparations for securing the Aug. 8-24 Games were proceeding. "We discuss security each time we meet the Beijing organizing committee, we have received assurances from the authorities that there will be the necessary and appropriate level of security," he told a news conference in Beijing at the end of a two-day meeting of the IOC's executive board.

TORCH RELAY

The Beijing Games torch relay, which has been dogged by protests by Tibet activists, resumed under heavy security in Buenos Aires on Friday after disruptions in London, Paris and San Francisco.

Buenos Aires deployed thousands of police and city officials to keep order, but the relay was not interrupted, with the greatest threat just a couple of tossed water-filled balloons. Enthusiastic onlookers outnumbered activists protesting China's rule of Tibet. Police separated small groups of pro- and anti-China protesters who gathered in front of Argentina's pink presidential palace and at other points along the route.

Chief Beijing organizer Liu Qi earlier told the IOC his team was working to avoid more chaotic scenes in the remaining legs of the relay. The torch relay's San Francisco route was abruptly changed by city officials this week, and Indonesia has said it would significantly shorten its leg on April 22.

Jin Jing, 27, a wheelchair-bound Chinese torch bearer, gained national fame after fending off protesters in Paris. "I still feel very angry now, and I think the man was very irrational," the Paralympic fencer told Reuters. "Hosting the Olympics is such a good thing for our country, so why do they want to ruin it?"

Zhan Yongxin of Chinese Foreign Ministry office in Hong Kong said the attack showed "some people are physically able, but spiritually disabled, while others have disabled bodies but their spirit is sound."

Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai pulled out of Sunday's Tanzanian relay leg to highlight her concerns about Tibet.
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More from Reuters: China says unity at stake over Tibet, denounces European Parliament's call to boycott Olympics opening ceremony

Despite Change In Political Landscape, Rela Still Alive And Kicking

A 42-year-old tour guide has lodged a police report after a group of Rela members allegedly tried to break into her apartment in Tingkat Tong Shin here while apparently tracking a suspected illegal immigrant.

Leow Mee Leng said that the men had failed to identify themselves properly, did not have a search warrant and were not accompanied by any policeman or Immigration officer.

In the 3.15am incident on Monday, Leow said she was fast asleep at her apartment located on the second floor of a town house. "I heard a thumping sound at my front door and heard a man shouting loudly, asking me to come out.

"I went to the door and asked him what the problem was, but he only shouted back that if I did not open the door he would break it open. I peeked through the peephole and saw several men standing outside. Fearing for my life, I ran back into my room and telephoned my first-floor neighbour who advised me to open the door,'' she said.

Leow said she hesitated for several minutes but decided to open the door when her neighbour and his wife came over to her apartment and shouted at her to open the door.

"There were about six to eight men in uniform, and one of them just dashed into my house with a torchlight. The man came out several minutes later and told his superior that he did not find anything,'' she said, adding that they refused to tell her what they were looking for.

Leow said that when urged by her neighbour, one of the Rela members told him that they were looking for "someone" who had escaped and believed to be hiding in Leow's house.

"The man also asked my neighbour's wife whether I was a Malaysian. When she told them that I was, they told me to go back into my apartment and then left hastily,'' she said.

Leow claimed that several minutes later, she saw the men taking away four women and two men from another apartment. She said her front door had been damaged and is missing an iron bar.

She lodged a report at the Dang Wangi police station on Monday evening. (The Star)

***** Governments may come and go, but the infamous Rela's Nazi-style tactics stubbornly remain and steadfastly continue to be an affront to the sensibilities of an increasingly impatient public. They should be leashed and muzzled as one would a rabid mongrel.

China Spurns International Call For Dialogue With Dalai Lama

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has spurned international calls for his government to hold talks with the exiled Dalai Lama over recent unrest in Tibetan areas, blaming the Buddhist leader for violent protests and accusing him of insincerity.

Wen said that supporters of the Dalai Lama had encouraged the "appalling incident in Lhasa", the capital of Tibet, and "similar incidents in other parts of China".

"There is plenty of evidence proving that this (Lhasa) incident was organized, premeditated and masterminded by the Dalai clique," Wen told reporters Tuesday at the end of the annual National People's Congress, China's nominal parliament.

Claims by supporters of the Dalai Lama that they wanted peaceful dialogue were "nothing but lies," he said. "Even under these circumstances, our original position remains unchanged," he said when asked about the possibility of direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

"As long as the Dalai Lama is willing to give up the so-called 'Tibet independence' and accept that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, our door is wide open," Wen said.

The Dalai Lama has previously declined to comment on the status of Taiwan, which China still claims as a breakaway province, on the grounds that the island has no connection with Tibet.

He has publicly renounced independence in favour of maximum autonomy and religious freedom for Tibet within China, but Beijing continues to accuse him of seeking independence and blames him for the lack of dialogue. "We should not only listen to what he says, but also listen to what he does," Wen said.

Wen's comments came as Tibetan exile groups reported more protests in Tibetan areas of China.

Tibetan students at Beijing's Central Minorities University held a silent, candle-lit vigil Monday night for those who died in the violence, reports said.

The government Monday expelled journalists from Lhasa and suspended permits for foreigners to travel to the city as a Tibetan exile group reported mass arrests ahead of a deadline for protesters to surrender to police.

Officials said at least 13 people died in Friday's rioting, but the Tibetan government in exile said it had confirmed at least 80 deaths in the city.

Wen Tuesday repeated the government's assertion that its forces had "exercised extreme restraint" in confronting protesters.

US President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among the world leaders who have urged China to hold dialogue with him over the recent unrest. (DNA)
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Related report: Dalai Lama says will quit if violence out of control

China Sets Deadline For Tibet Rioters To Surrender

China set a "surrender" deadline after riots in Lhasa that it said killed 10 innocent people, launching a crackdown on Saturday after the worst unrest in Tibet for two decades.

The response came after torrid protests on Friday which flew in the face of official claims the region was immune from unrest as Beijing readies to hold the Olympic Games in August.

Xinhua news agency said 10 "innocent civilians" were shot or burnt to death in fires that accompanied street clashes in the remote, mountain capital on Friday. It said no foreigners died, and the dead included two people killed with shotguns.

Tibetan law-and-order departments offered leniency for rioters who turned themselves in by Monday midnight.

"Criminals who do not surrender themselves by the deadline will be sternly punished according to the law," stated the notice on the Tibetan government Web site (www.tibet.gov.cn). It added that those who "harbor or hide" them also face harsh treatment.

The government offered rewards and protection for informers.

Chinese television showed footage of rioters trashing shops and trying to break down the entrance of a bank, and plumes of smoke floating above the city.

A source close to the self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile suggested China's death toll of 10 was not the full story. He said at least five Tibetan protesters were shot dead by troops. Other groups supporting Tibetan independence have claimed many more may have died.

The Olympic torch arrives in Lhasa in a matter of weeks.

China has accused followers of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of masterminding the rioting, which has scarred its image of national harmony in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics.

A rash of angry blog posts appeared after China confirmed deaths in Lhasa and Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a Buddhist and an activist for Tibetan causes, suggested an Olympic boycott.

Tibetan crowds in the remote mountain city attacked government offices, burnt vehicles and shops and threw stones at police on Friday in bloody confrontations that left many injured.

A Reuters picture showed a protester setting afire a Chinese national flag. Another depicted security personnel shielding themselves against rocks hurled by protesters.

Qiangba Puncog, the top government official in Tibet, told reporters in Beijing that Tibetan authorities had not fired any shots to quell the violence.

But official statements suggested the government reaction in coming days will be tough, and will bring Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries under tighter controls.

The Tibet government notice claimed that the burning of schools, hospitals, shops and houses was "premeditated". And an announcement on Tibet television urged residents to denounce the "malicious intent" of the Dalai Lama, "protect national sovereignty" and "reject lawless monks and nuns".

The International Campaign for Tibet cited unconfirmed reports of scores of Tibetans killed. John Ackerly of the group said in an e-mailed statement he feared "hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested and are being interrogated and tortured".

Danish tourist Bente Walle, 58, said Lhasa was like a ghost town on Saturday.

"Today Lhasa is completely closed and there is Chinese military all over," she said, adding that many people were tying white prayer scarves on doors. "The Tibetans put them on their doors to tell everybody: here is a Tibetan."

NO CHANGE OF POLICY

The riots emerged from a volatile mix of pre-Olympics protests, diplomatic friction over Tibet and local discontent with the harsh ways of the region's Communist Party leadership.

China has chided the leaders of the United States and especially Germany in past months for hosting the Dalai Lama, saying such acts boost what they call his "separatist" goals. It has also urged India to stop protests there by exiled Tibetans.

"We are fully capable of maintaining the social stability of Tibet," Xinhua quoted an official as saying in a statement repeated across Chinese state media on Saturday.

But already the protests have become an international issue dogging the Beijing Games, which China hopes will showcase its economic progress and social harmony.

Asked whether he thought the unrest in Tibet would affect the torch relay passing through there, Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said no.

"The preparations for the Torch relay in Tibet and taking the flame up Mount Qomolangma have been progressing smoothly," he said. Mount Qomolangma is better known as Mount Everest.
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Doom Lies Ahead If Taliban Prevail - Afghan President Karzai

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said his country, along with Pakistan, faces "gloom and doom" from Taliban insurgents, and called for the world to "join hands" to defeat the Islamist rebels.

In an interview published on Sunday by the Washington Post, Karzai also said that the United States had been supportive of Kabul's positive relationship with Iran, despite the tension between Washington and Tehran.

Asked about the strength of the Taliban in their attacks inside Afghanistan, Karzai suggested that the group has external backers.

"They would not be strong without support," he said.

Karzai, who had just returned from Pakistan, declined to specify who is backing the Taliban, which US intelligence has said receives support from tribal areas on Pakistan's western border.

But Karzai said that "Pakistan and Afghanistan and the United States and the rest of the world must join hands in sincerity in order to end this problem."

He said that he found Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf "more cognisant of the problems of extremism and terrorism. And that's a good sign, and I hope we will continue in that direction."

"We have to end extremism. We have to end support to extremism in the region," he added. Unless we do that, the picture is one of doom and gloom - for Pakistan, and as a consequence for Afghanistan."

Karzai applauded the US support for his government in Afghanistan - including the planned deployment of 32 000 US Marines - and the battle against terrorism as "fundamental and strong".

But he added: "It will make a difference when the Americans are clear and straightforward about this fight," saying the US should "mean what they say and do what they say".

He said that Washington had encouraged Kabul in its close relationship with Iran, despite US-Iran tensions. "We have had a particularly good relationship with Iran the past six years. It's a relationship that I hope will continue," Karzai said.

"The United States very wisely understood that it was our neighbour and encouraged that relationship," he said.

"We don't like a nuclear region, of course. Nobody wants nuclear weapons... But the United States has been very understanding and supportive that Afghanistan should have a relationship with Iran." (Independent Online)
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Iran Is World's Leading State Sponsor Of Terror: US President George W Bush

US President George W Bush said on Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger "before it's too late."

Bush said Iran funds terrorist extremists, undermines peace in Lebanon, sends arms to the Taliban, seeks to intimidate its neighbors with alarming rhetoric, defies the United Nations and destabilizes the entire region by refusing to be open about its nuclear program.

"Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terror," Bush said in a speech he delivered about midway through his eight-day Mideast trip that began with a renewed push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace pact - an accord he said whose "time has come."

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere," Bush said. "So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late."

Bush lauded democratic reforms in Gulf nations ruled by authoritarian leaders. He said the Iranian government in Tehran needs to make itself accountable to its people. And he called on the Palestinians to reject extremists, although he did not mention the Islamic radical group Hamas, which has gained control of the Gaza Strip.

"This new era is being built with the understanding that power is a trust that must be exercised with the consent of the governed," Bush said.

Bush spoke at the Emirates Palace, an opulent, gold-trimmed hotel where a suite goes for US$2,450 (euro1,656) a night. Half the audience was dressed in western attire and the other half in Arabic clothes - white robes and headdresses for men and black abayas, many with jeweled edges, for women.

Bush said advancing democracy and freedom is the core of his administration's foreign policy and critical to US security.

"The United States has no desire for territory. We seek our shared security in your liberty. We believe that stability can only come through a free and just Middle East where the extremists are marginalized," the president said.

In renewing his "Freedom Agenda" - Bush's grand ambition to seed democracy around the globe - he declared that "democracy is the only form of government that treats individuals with the dignity and equality that is their right."

"We know from experience that democracy is the only system of government that yields lasting peace and stability," he added.

Yet he was speaking about democracy in a deeply undemocratic country, the Emirates, where royal rulers make virtually all the decisions. Large numbers of foreign resident workers have few legal or human rights, including no right to citizenship and no right to protest working conditions.
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What the Devil Is Going On In Prai?

From a report in The Sun.

A series of violent incidents between two ethnic groups has occurred in the last 48 hours following a misunderstanding over a road accident in Prai on New Year's eve.

Police said it all started when a drunk motorcyclist, in his 40s, was involved in a minor accident with another motorcycle ridden by two youths, in their 20s at about 10.30pm on New Year's eve.

The accident, in front of a place of worship in Kampung Manis, Prai, was witnessed by two groups of people and a fight broke out between them. The fight resulted in two people being hospitalised for injuries and two others receiving outpatient treatment. The two men who were hospitalised are reported to be in stable condition.

Penang police chief Datuk Koh Hong Sun told a press conference today 16 people, aged between 16 and 30, had been arrested for being directly involved in the fight.They have been remanded until next week while police are still tracking down others involved in the fight, he said.

Several vehicles along Jalan Utama in Prai were also damaged during the incident.

However, the misunderstanding was far from over as more "violent incidents" occurred between 12.30am and 2.30am today, said Koh. However, he declined to divulge details of the incidents, saying only that cars and motorcycles were damaged in the incidents in several places in central Seberang Perai and in one location in north Seberang Perai near Kepala Batas.

"One person was injured in one of the incidents but he is in a stable condition," Koh said.

"We have determined that the main cause of these incidents was the misunderstanding between the parties involved and also because of the influence of alcohol during the New Year celebration."

He stressed that it had nothing to do with any racial or religious dispute and that it did not involve any organisation.

"All these incidents are being investigated and we will take appropriate actions according to the law," Koh said.

"We urge the public to avoid speculating on the incidences and spreading rumours through the SMS or other methods."

He said such rumours may be misconstrued and threaten the peace of the country. "It is an offence to spread such rumours, so we will not hesitate to take action against those found committing the offence," he said.

Koh urged the public to remain calm and to avoid taking any drastic action which may worsen the situation.

He said police had contacted political and religious representatives in the areas to mediate and calm the situation.

***** What contradictory statements from the Penang police chief. At first he claims that the 'misunderstanding' had nothing to do with any racial or religious dispute, but then he quickly adds that political and religious representatives have been asked to mediate and calm the situation!

This was the same bullshit that was given during the Kampung Medan massacre. With an almost homogeneous police force can they be expected to exercise reasonable neutrality in handling inter-ethnic strife?

I hope that the Umno-led government is very happy at the brittleness of our 'stability' as a result of their strategy of divide-and-rule and playing off one race against another by indirectly encouraging religio-racist feelings and animosity from their 'target' group. Let's hope that at least the CPO Datuk Koh Hong Sun can bring a quick end to the explosive situation there.
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Most Dangerous Places In The World For Journalists

Iraq has been rated by an independent monitoring body, the Press Emblem Campaign, as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, ahead of Somalia.

Sri Lanka ranks third, with seven journalists killed in 2007 against four last year due to the intensity of the civil war, said the PEC Ticking Clock that monitors the journalist causalities on a monthly basis.

Pakistan comes fourth with five journalist casualties. "The continued deterioration is clear in Pakistan, where five journalists were killed," the PEC said.

India shares the ninth place along with Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, and Guatemala, with two journalists killed in each country in 2007.

The PEC, founded in June 2004 by a group of journalists from several countries based in Switzerland, is an independent humanitarian association aiming to strengthen the legal protection and safety of journalists in zones of conflict and civil unrest.

According to the campaign monitoring system, never before have so many journalists been killed globally in one year, the total up to date is 110, as compared with 96 in 2006 and 68 in 2005.

"Therefore, the 2007 year causality figure reflects a new deterioration for freedom of the press worldwide," it said, adding 2007's tally represents a 14 per cent increase over the 2006 figure.

In total, journalists have been killed in 27 countries led by those killed in Iraq, the most dangerous for the fifth consecutive year, with 50 journalists killed in 2007, against 48 in 2006 and at least 250 since the war was launched in Iraq in March 2003.

***** Compared to these places, journalists must find Malaysia a completely safe oasis in the midst of war, violence and ruthless cruelty. For once I agree with our silly slogan, Malaysia Boleh.
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Myanmar Refugees Face Wretched Existence In Malaysia

---- Living in miserable camps not far from the glittering Petronas Twin Towers, Myanmar refugees in Malaysia are some of the most wretched of the hundreds of thousands who have fled their homeland. "We are living here like prisoners, we cannot go out anywhere because we are frightened," says 35-year-old James Munerlian, a Christian pastor from Myanmar's Chin state who fled persecution by the military regime.

---- They escaped Myanmar on foot in the hope of finding a better life, but instead are exploited by unscrupulous employers and harassed by Malaysia's controversial volunteer security corps which hunts down illegal migrants.

---- "Malaysia has become one of the worst places for Burmese asylum seekers because of the way the government and its enforcers have brutalised and abused refugees," says Debbie Stothard from human rights group Altsean Burma. "Large groups of refugees are in hiding around the country and they are penniless and desperate," she adds, using Myanmar's former name.

---- Chin Refugee Centre coordinator Paul Lian says most Myanmar refugees in Malaysia work illegally on building sites or plantations and face beatings, extortion and exploitation from employers.

"The groups are in very bad shape as they have no money, no food and fear for their safety," he says, adding that as they have no rights they are either not paid at all or given a pittance.

---- Another camp dweller, 43-year-old Peter Thant Tum who has been on the run for the past three years, just wants a chance at leading a normal life.

"If the Malaysia government has consideration, please give us legal documents and allow us to work, to earn money and eat, our lives will be more happy," he says.

---- Crackdowns on illegal migrants are carried out by the volunteer RELA corps, a notorious uniformed brigade accused of rampant human rights abuses.

"We don't have any security, our brothers they go to the market but then the RELA men, they stop us and they demand money," Thant Tum says.

"They don't want to arrest us because they know they will have to feed us and take care of us so they only demand money from us and beat us very badly."

Read the full report from AFP HERE.
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Is Pervez Musharraf Under House Arrest?

Rumours have been circulating in Pakistan and abroad that President Pervez Musharraf has been placed under house arrest by his subordinates in the military who are unhappy with his decision to impose emergency rule.

The Pakistani strongman however denied the rumours, calling it a joke of the highest order.

In the twisted, convoluted world of Pakistan politics anything is possible, even a 'joke of the highest order'.

Reuters India reports that media organisations received calls from cities all around Pakistan, including Karachi, where the stock market had fallen 4.7 percent on the political uncertainty.

Meanwhile Pakistan's sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry has described President Pervez Musharraf's post-emergency set-up as "illegal and unconstitutional" in his first comments after being deposed by the general.

"Everything that is happening today is illegal, unconstitutional and against the orders of the Supreme Court," Chaudhury, who was put under house arrest after he refused to take oath under Musharraf's Provisional Constitutional Order, told The News on telephone.

Only time will tell how this new development unfolds. Although Musharraf is valuable to the U.S. in its 'War Against Terror', going by the stinging rebuke from Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice, the embattled president's days in office may be numbered.
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Bali Bombers Will Not Ask for Clemency

Three Indonesian militants on death row for their involvement in planning the Bali bombings five years ago said on Saturday they were ready to die and would not seek a presidential pardon.

Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, also known as Ali Gufron, were sentenced to death for the October 12, 2002, resort island bombings in which over 200 people died. They face execution by a firing squad after the country's top court rejected their appeal.

"Clemency is not from Islamic law. I have been living as a Muslim and will die as a Muslim," state news agency Antara quoted Imam Samudra as saying after Eid al-Fitr prayers at their prison mosque on Nusakambangan island in Central Java.


"Clemency is only proposed by guilty people and we are not among the guilty people," he said. "Even if were we to die right now, God willing, we will enter heaven as martyrs."

The three men have already said in a statement read by their lawyers that they will not seek a presidential pardon and that if they are executed, their death will bring "light to the faithful and burning hellfire for the infidels".

Indonesia's Constitutional Court is expected to rule on October 30 on a petition challenging the legality of the death penalty which was filed by lawyers for six Australians on death row for drug trafficking in Bali.

It is not clear if a decision in favour of the petition would affect the fate of the Bali bombers.

Hundreds of activists, religious leaders and other Indonesians have signed a petition calling on the government to scrap the death penalty altogether. "Various studies show that the death penalty has no deterrent effects," said a statement by the Alliance for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Signatories includes leaders of Indonesia's main religions, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Amnesty International has also appealed to Indonesia to commute all death sentences and spare the Bali bombings trio. "Executions can create martyrs whose memories become a rallying point for their organisations," Amnesty said in a statement.

The bombings in Bali and other attacks that have hit Indonesia in recent years have been blamed on the Southeast Asian Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiah.

But analysts say the security threat from Jemaah Islamiah (JI) appears to have been contained. "The threat from JI is much less than it was five years ago," said Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group think-tank. JI still exists as an organisation but most of its members aren't interested in bombing."

The last big bomb attack in Indonesia was over two years ago when three Islamic militants blew themselves up in beachside restaurants in Bali, killing 20 people. (Independent Online)
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Many Women Justify Wife Beating In India!

If you thought domestic violence was on the wane in India with the rise in education levels, take a look at these hard figures. Over 40% of women in a nationwide survey reported being beaten by their husbands at some point of time. More shockingly, around 54% of the women surveyed thought that such violence was justified on one ground or the other.

According to India’s most comprehensive National Family Health Survey-III, which interviewed 125,000 women in 28 states and the national capital during 2005-06, 41% of women justified wife beating if it was because they showed disrespect towards their in-laws while 35% women were OK with being brutally assaulted by their husbands if they neglected household chores or their children.

Not surprisingly then, 51% of the 75,000 men interviewed didn’t find anything wrong with assaulting their wives.

Dr Sulabha Parasuraman of the International Institute of Population Studies, who spearheaded the survey conducted jointly by 18 organisations, termed this attitude of Indian women "truly shocking".

"Men are brought up being taught that beating up their wives isn’t wrong while women are told that being assaulted by their husbands is acceptable. Girls are taught that they can be punished by their husbands for disobedience. This social attitude has to change immediately," she said. (The Times Of India)
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And Why Wouldn't People Be Afraid Of Indians, Samy Vellu?

The brawl involving two groups of people in Green Hall, Penang leading to the death of two brothers on Monday was due to the bigger group poking fun at a woman from the other party.

Georgetown OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abd Hamid said the bigger group, about 20 of them, was drunk before they started teasing the woman at the sea-front promenade.

"The woman's friends approached the bigger group to stop the teasing, and that probably stirred up a fight," he said.

Mechanics K. Umathavan, 20, and his younger brother Prem Kumar, 18, were killed in the brawl involving more than 20 motorcyclists at about 3.30am on Monday.

The brothers were sitting in a car with three other friends, including the woman, while the group of motorcyclists were drinking by the sea.

One of their friends has a fractured ankle while the driver had more than 10 slash wounds on his back.

The woman escaped unharmed and she immediately alerted a security personnel at a nearby building who called the police and ambulance.

ACP Azam said four people, all in their early 20s, had since been remanded for seven days to facilitate investigation.

"We have more or less identified the assailants and more arrests would be made within the next few days. We urge them to surrender themselves and tell us the whole story before we come after them," he said.

ACP Azam added that the police had seized a motorcycle at the scene belonging to one of the suspects. (The Star Update)

***** The above is merely the latest in a long, long list of violent acts by Indian youth which often results in deaths. It is interesting to note that the gruesome violence perpetrated by young Indians are by and large confined to those within their community. It's as if they have a score to settle only with fellow Indians while the others mercifully are ignored.

The authorities, in concert with genuinely concerned Indian organisations should do something about this sorry state of affairs. Just nabbing them now and then and sending them off to Simpang Renggam and other detention centres is counter-productive in the long run.
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