Mahathir attacked for jailing of critics<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A regional pro-democracy group accused
\nMalaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Monday of clinging
\nto an \"archaic\" law to imprison his political opponents.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the Alliance for Reform and Democracy in
\nAsia urged the Malaysian government to abolish the Internal
\nSecurity Act, a holdover from the British colonial era that is
\ncurrently being used to jail six prominent opposition activists
\nindefinitely without trial.<\/p>\n
\"I can't understand how an educated, farsighted leader such as
\nDr. Mahathir can still cling to an archaic law,\" said Tioulong
\nSaumura, a Cambodian opposition lawmaker.<\/p>\n
\"Even in Cambodia, our leaders do not bother about trying to
\nput up a facade of legal procedures,\" said Saumura, who is the
\nwife of Sam Rainsy, Cambodia's top opposition leader.<\/p>\n
Saumura was speaking to reporters at the end of a five-day
\nvisit to Malaysia to probe the case of 10 opposition officials
\nwhom police arrested in April for allegedly plotting violent
\nprotests to oust Mahathir.<\/p>\n
Four of the activists were sent last week to the notorious
\nKamunting detention camp in northern Malaysia. Two are in police
\ncustody in unknown locations, while the rest have been released -
\ntwo on the orders of a judge and two by police, without
\nexplanation.<\/p>\n
Mahathir has defended the move as necessary to safeguard
\nnational security. But opposition leaders call it a clampdown on
\ndissent against the Malaysian leader, who has led this Southeast
\nAsian country since 1981.<\/p>\n
Delegates from the Asian democracy group, which comprises
\nindividual politicians from 13 countries, said they had requested
\na meeting with Mahathir, his deputy and the national police chief
\nlast week to discuss the detentions. They said they received no
\nresponse.<\/p>\n
Mahathir was visiting Japan for most of the past week, while
\nDeputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi traveled to some
\nMalaysian states outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city.<\/p>\n
Sunjaasuren Oyun, a Mongolian member of Parliament, said that
\ndelegates from the pro-democracy organization met with an
\nofficial of Malaysia's human rights commission, local opposition
\nleaders and several wives of the detainees.<\/p>\n
Oyun said the group would send letters condemning the
\ndetentions to Mary Robinson, the United Nations high commissioner
\nfor human rights, and the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union,
\nwhose membership of national parliaments from more than 100
\ncountries works with the United Nations to promote the role of
\nlegislative bodies.<\/p>\n
The detainees are leaders of or linked to the opposition
\nNational Justice Party, or Keadilan, headed by the wife of jailed
\npolitician Anwar Ibrahim, who Mahathir fired in 1998.<\/p>\n
Anwar was subsequently convicted on corruption and sodomy
\ncharges he says were concocted to prevent him from challenging
\nMahathir. Mahathir denies a conspiracy. Anwar is serving prison
\nterms totaling 15 years.<\/p>",
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