Anwar aides report brutality by police

Anwar aides report brutality by police

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Two aides of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim suffered skull fractures and eye injuries when police dispersed an anti-government protest last month, an inquiry was told on Monday.

The inquiry is the first ever held by Malaysian National Human Rights Commission into alleged police brutality and has prompted warnings by the government for the commissioners to tread warily.

The investigation, which began Nov. 29, drew intense public interest on Monday when the aides to Anwar - a former deputy prime minister whom his supporters say has been unjustly imprisoned - testified before a panel of three commissioners.

Shaiful Khairy Kamarulzaman said that he had been escorting Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, in the Nov. 5 protest when police fired an aluminum tear-gas canister at him, opening a wound in his forehead.

"I was hospitalized with fractures and swollen tissues in my skull," Shaiful said.

Saeden Wateh, a helper for Anwar's family, said that unidentified policemen twice sprayed his eyes with a chemical while he was in custody, causing temporary blindness. He received medical attention only 24 hours later.

"I was handcuffed to my hospital bed," Saeden said. "My eyesight is now permanently impaired and I now have to wear spectacles."

Saeden, 47, provided the inquiry with video clips recorded by opposition activists of police allegedly assaulting him at the rally.

"I was kicked in the groin and a policeman forced me to unzip my pants before gripping my private parts, causing me pain," Saeden said.

The inquiry has been shrouded with controversy since the commission said it would investigate police handling of the protest, which was the biggest staged by the opposition this year.

Thousands of people blocked a major expressway urging more democracy and the release of Anwar. More than 100 people were arrested and charged with illegal assembly, and the opposition alleged that police used excessive force. Police deny the allegations.

Anwar was sacked by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 and is serving 15 years in prison for convictions of corruption and sodomy. Anwar says the charges were trumped up to extinguish any possible challenge to Mahathir, who has ruled Malaysia since 1981.

Since Anwar's fall from grace, police have regularly clashed with opposition activists who have defied batons and threats of long jail terms to organize protests and demand Anwar's freedom and Mahathir's ouster.

Government ministers, prosecutors and police have questioned the legality of the inquiry. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said proper procedures should be drawn up.

But on Monday, Anuar Zainal Abidin, the former federal judge who is heading the inquiry, said it would proceed. "All I want is for someone to come up and tell what happened. Now what rules do you want?" Anuar said.

Though the commission has no prosecuting authority, its report could further tarnish the reputation of the police. Anwar was beaten in custody by the national police chief after his arrest Sept. 20, 1998.

Two weeks ago, Anwar was taken from prison and hospitalized with a slipped disc, which may require surgery. Doctors have yet to determine if the ailment is due to the police beatings.

The inquiry is expected to continue off and on until February.

In another development, Mahathir on Monday accused a committee pressing for more rights for Malaysia's ethnic Chinese minority of extremism and harboring a communist agenda.

Mahathir was quoted by the national news agency Bernama as telling Parliament that the committee was playing with fire because it seeks to end affirmative-action policies that have benefited the Malay Muslim majority for decades.