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."