Malaysian police arrest another opposition leader

Malaysian police arrest another opposition leader

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Police arrested a prominent Malaysian
opposition leader on Tuesday after he delivered a fiery speech at
a rally, bringing to nine the number of anti-government activists
detained in the last two weeks under tough security laws.

About eight plainclothes officers seized Lokman Noor Adam, a
youth leader in the National Justice Party, or Keadilan, as he
was leaving the site of the rally just after midnight on Tuesday in
Shah Alam city, 30 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur,
witnesses said.

Police said in a statement that Lokman was detained under the
Internal Security Act, the national news agency, Bernama
reported.

The act was introduced in the early 1960s to stem a communist
insurgency and allows authorities to detain people indefinitely
without trial.

"This is a clearly growing crackdown on our leaders," Anuar
Tahir, Keadilan's secretary-general, told The Associated Press.
"We don't know where they have been taken, we have no contact
with them. The authorities want to cripple us."

Seven activists, six of them Keadilan officials, were arrested
April 10-11, and another party leader was detained at his home
last Friday.

At the time of the first arrests, police said the activists
belonged to a group that planned in 1998 to use explosives in
street protests to topple Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's
government.

Mahathir has defended the arrests, saying that enforcement of
security laws "protects the freedom of the people."

On Tuesday, about 40 opposition lawmakers, relatives of the
detainees and supporters gathered outside federal police
headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to demand a meeting with national
police chief Norian Mai over the arrests.

A small group of relatives was allowed into the building to
meet with senior officers, although Norian was not present.

"I am shocked," said Noorfarahin Ahmat, Lokman's wife, of his
arrest. "This is my son's first birthday. I wish Lokman was here
to celebrate it."

The family of another detainee, Keadilan youth wing chief Ezam
Mohamad Noor, brought a cake to the police station to mark his
34th birthday, and the protesters sang "Happy Birthday."

Ezam's wife, Bahirah Tajul Ariff, said after the meeting that
authorities refused to reveal where the detainees are being held.

"This has caused so much distress to us," she told reporters.
"We are in great fear for our loved ones and cannot help coming
to the conclusion that the police are hiding something."

The relatives then went to the Human Rights Commission office,
where they filed a complaint against the latest arrest.

Commissioner Anuar Zainal Abidin said that "arrests under the
ISA are certainly an abuse of human rights."

Most of those arrested, including Lokman, were organizers of a
rally to mark the second anniversary of former deputy premier
Anwar Ibrahim's conviction on corruption charges on April 14,
1999.

Anti-government gatherings, once rare in Malaysia, have become
regular occurrences since Mahathir fired Anwar from the Cabinet
in September 1998.

Anwar, who is serving prison sentences totaling 15 years for
corruption and sodomy, is seen as a symbol for the opposition's
battle for democratic reforms.

Lawyers for five of the activists arrested this month have
asked Malaysia's High Court to order their release, insisting the
group were detained for political reasons, not because they posed
a security threat.

Judge Augustine Paul is scheduled to deliver his ruling on
Wednesday.

Lawyer Zainur Zakaria said that hearings aimed at securing the
release of two other activists began in a Shah Alam court on
Tuesday.