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.