Peaceful rally pleases both sides

Peaceful rally pleases both sides

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's government and opposition have both claimed credit after a banned weekend rally by thousands of supporters of jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim passed off peacefully.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said last week's detention without trial of seven activists nipped plans for a violent, Indonesian-style protest in the bud last Saturday.

An opposition leader said the peaceful end to the "Black 14" gathering showed there was no basis to detain the seven -- alleged by Mahathir to have been planning a violent protest involving the use of explosives.

A crowd estimated at between 2,000-3,000 gathered last Saturday outside the offices of the national human rights commission (Suhakam), as opposition legislators led by Anwar's wife handed in a memorandum on rights abuses.

Black 14 marks the second anniversary of Anwar's first conviction.

The former deputy premier, once Mahathir's heir apparent, is serving a total of 15 years in jail after being convicted in separate trials of abuse of power and sodomy but says he is a political prisoner.

Police had banned last Saturday's rally. Some 400 officers, backed up by water cannon, were on standby but did not try to disperse the crowd.

Mahathir said last Saturday the gathering failed to achieve what he called its target of 50,000 participants because instigators had been locked up.

"I think it is because they have no leaders to incite them ... their leaders have been detained by police," he said.

The government's use of the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allows indefinite detention without trial, was apparently effective, he said.

Mahathir, quoted by Sunday newspapers, said he had information that "certain parties" had gone to Indonesia and told people there that an Indonesian-style demonstration would be held in Malaysia.

"They proposed a gathering of 50,000 people and we learnt that they told certain people that they wanted to have it a la Indonesia, that is through violence. But (it) did not happen."

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party, issued a statement praising people who had gathered Saturday "to send a clear message of their deep concern about the erosion of human rights."