Six to be charged after Timor fracas

Six to be charged after Timor fracas

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Six members of a pro-Malaysian
government youth group which disrupted a meeting on East Timor a
week ago will be charged in court, the national Bernama news
agency reported.

Quoting Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob,
Bernama said police had completed their investigations on the six
members of the People's Action Front, which broke up the Asia
Pacific Conference on East Timor II (APCET II).

Megat Junid did not identify the six, detail the charges or
say when they would appear in court. Seven demonstrators from the
group, which comprised members of Malaysia's ruling National
Front coalition, were briefly detained after the fracas at a
hotel in the capital in which furniture was overturned and
participants manhandled.

About 100 members of the group entered the hotel and stormed
the conference, set to run for three days. Earlier about 1,000
anti-APCET II demonstrators had gathered outside the hotel vowing
to disrupt proceedings.

The Malaysian government had opposed the conference, fearing
it would harm ties with neighboring Indonesia. East Timor was
formerly a Portuguese colony which integrated Indonesia in 1976
in defiance of the United Nations.