KL rights body to investigate racial violence

KL rights body to investigate racial violence

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysia's human rights commission
would investigate claims that police stood by while ethnic Malays
attacked ethnic Indians during recent ethnic violence which was
the country's worst in three decades, a senior member said on
Friday.

Commissioner Anuar Zainal Abidin said a full and open public
inquiry should be urgently held into the claims, which stem from
fighting outside Kuala Lumpur earlier this month which killed at
least six people and injured more than 50.

The accusations are contained in a report compiled by an
ethnic Indian-based political party which interviewed dozens of
mostly Indian witnesses to the clashes, and handed to Anuar on
Friday.

The 108-page report, which included graphic photographs of
Indians who were hacked by long knives called parangs and who
suffered other injuries, said some police who flooded into the
area during the fighting "deliberately" left ethnic Indian
settlements unguarded and stood by while armed Malays attacked
Indians at random.

The report said the fighting was not a racial clash, but was
"an orchestrated ... organized crime by a small Malay squad of
about 200 people attacking any and every Indian."

P. Utayakumar, secretary-general of the Malaysian People's
Reform Party which compiled the report, urged an urgent human
rights probe be held.

"There has gross violations of human rights," he said.
"Sufficient police protection was not provided for the Indians."

He said 10 official complaints had been filed against police
including allegations that officers were "watching passively" as
Indians were attacked, or were within the vicinity of attacks but
did not respond.

National police spokesman Benjamin Hasbie denied on Friday
that officers had failed to protect ethnic Indians and said the
force would cooperate with the human rights commission.

"We have nothing to hide," Hasbie told The Associated Press.
"We protect everybody, that is our cardinal responsibility. We
have been very transparent and very sincere in carrying out our
duties."

At least six people, five of them ethnic Indians, were killed
in fighting which started on March 8 and continued intermittently
for four days in five townships on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

The fighting is believed to have been triggered after an
ethnic Indian man knocked over furniture at a Malay wedding in
the neighborhood, and escalated into the worst racial violence
since riots in 1969 involving ethnic Chinese and Malays.

Authorities have blamed the clashes on criminal gangs and
poverty in the villages, which are home to about 100,000 mostly
poor laborers and squatters.

Anuar said he would push for a full-blown inquiry into the
allegations by three panelists. If a full panel inquiry was not
possible, he would conduct the inquiry himself with full powers
from the commission.

"I agree that an immediate inquiry should be held," Anuar told
reporters.

Meanwhile, women's groups in Malaysia are demanding a law
against sexual harassment at work after only one percent of
employers adopted a voluntary code, they said on Friday.

The government released the code in 1999 but only 4,500
workplaces, mainly multi-national companies, have adopted it, and
reports of harassment are increasing.

"Because the code is voluntary, what we're seeing is the
response from the employers is dismal," Loh Cheng Kooi, executive
director of the Women's Crisis Center in northern Penang state,
said during a meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Deputy minister of human resources Abdul Latiff Ahmad refused
to commit the government to creating a law.

"We will discuss it thoroughly," he said at a press conference
after receiving draft legislation from the leaders of eight
women's groups. "We are still in the education process."

Last week, Abdul Latiff said the government received 40
complaints of harassment last year compared to 18 in 1999.