Groups try to prolong clashes amid new attacks in Malaysia
Groups try to prolong clashes amid new attacks in Malaysia
SHAH ADAM, Malaysia (Agencies): Malaysian police on Thursday said unknown groups of attackers were attempting to prolong recent ethnic violence in the wake of four fresh attacks on minority Indians.
"There are certain people who want this to drag on and to create instability in the country," Selangor state police chief Nik Ismail Nik Yusuf told reporters. "They do not do anything for a day or two -- when there is a lull they hit again."
Nik Ismail said police did not know the attackers' identity or whether they were locals or foreigners.
In the latest violence, Nik Ismail said four Indians were attacked in separate incidents over a two-hour period early Wednesday by Malays armed with baseball bats and machetes near Kampung Medan, a poor area in Petaling Jaya town, west of Kuala Lumpur.
The first victim was cycling when he was set on by two Malays on a motorcycle, who later slashed two more victims walking on the same road.
The fourth victim was assailed by five Malay youths armed with baseball bats, the police chief said, adding all victims were in a stable condition.
Police said Thursday they are questioning four people who sent or received Internet e-mails which appeared aimed at inciting racial violence, as fresh attacks on four people raised fears that Malaysia's worst ethnic violence in three decades is not ended.
Nik Ismail said police had tracked down a man who sent e-mails which urged the receivers to attack ethnic Indians, and warning that ethnic Malays were in danger of being attacked by gangs of Indians in an area on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party urged Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to visit the affected area to restore inter-communal peace following "the worst clashes in the country in 32 years."
"The government has failed to convey the message that it is serious and capable of sustaining a socio-economic and law and order infrastructure," he said in a statement.
Lim said every single renewed attack "undermines national stability and jeopardizes Malaysia's reputation as a safe destination of investment."
Police earlier said 1,000 police personnel had been deployed to patrol the troubled areas.
Nik Ismail said 314 people had been arrested since the clashes broke out March 8 between Indians and Malays, with 77 charged for offenses including possessing dangerous weapons and illegal gathering.
Five Indians and an Indonesian were killed during four days of violence that broke out March 8 in Kampung Medan.
Opposition parties and non-governmental organizations have called for an independent inquiry into the causes of the clashes.
Activists of Malaysia's ruling party urged police on Thursday to investigate what they called the malicious coverage by five foreign news organizations of recent racial violence.
The youth wing of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) cited two international news agencies, Agence France Press and Associated Press, and three foreign newspapers, the International Herald Tribune, the South China Morning Post and the Times of the U.K. in a report to the police.
Local newspapers have criticized some reporting by the foreign media which reporting that more people died in the clashes than was in fact the case.
In another development, Malaysia's figurehead rulers have permitted the country's main opposition party to retain the word "Islam" in its name despite a demand from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's party that it be dropped.
The Conference of Rulers, which groups Malaysia's constitutional monarchs and state governors, took the decision at a meeting on Thursday attended by Mahathir, the official Bernama news agency said.
Political analysts saw the move as largely appeasing the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), which is challenging Mahathir's UMNO for the support of the country's Muslim Malay majority.