Amnesty International hari ini menggesa Perdana Menteri Britain David Cameron dan Pope Benedict supaya tidak membentangkan ‘permaidani merah’ kepada Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak kerana layanan buruk dan tindakan kejam kerajaan pimpinannya terhadap perhimpunan aman rakyat Sabtu lalu.
Menurut badan hak asasi dunia itu, Cameron (kanan) khususnya perlu memberitahu Najib yang bakal dalam rangka lawatan empat hari ke UK bermula hari ini bahawa pencabulan hak asasi seumpama itu tidak dapat diterima. Continue reading ‘Amnesty Iinternational: Jangan Bentang Permaidani Merah Bagi Najib’
Archive for July, 2011
With its response to Bersih 2.0, a rally for electoral reform, the government has created an environment of fear and repression
Based on the evidence of this weekend’s rally in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysians aspire for a more competitive political system than what they have. Also based on this weekend’s evidence, Prime Minister Najib Razak isn’t prepared to give it to them.
An estimated 20,000 or more people peacefully gathered in Kuala Lumpur Saturday to call for free and fair elections. Their complaints included vote-rigging and gerrymandering of constituencies to the ruling party’s benefit. Bersih 2.0, as the rally was called, was the biggest event of its kind in four years. The original Bersih (the word means “clean” in Malay) called for electoral reforms in 2007.
As with the original rally, this one was met not by understanding from the government but by police deploying tear gas and water cannons. More than 1,600 attendees were detained and released late Sunday. One demonstrator died from a heart attack. Continue reading ‘Crackdown 2.0 in Malaysia’
11 July 2011
The UK government must press Malaysia’s Prime Minister on freedom of assembly in his visit this week, Amnesty International said today, after peaceful protesters in Kuala Lumpur were met with police violence and 1,667 arrests at the weekend.
Police arrested peaceful demonstrators, fired teargas canisters directly at protesters, and teargassed a hospital compound on 9 July, in attempts to stop the electoral reform rally known as Bersih 2.0 from gathering in a stadium.
One protester, 56-year-old Baharuddin Ahmad, collapsed near the landmark Petronas Towers while fleeing teargas, and was pronounced dead later in hospital.
“Prime Minister Najib’s government rode roughshod over thousands of Malaysians exercising their right to peaceful protest,” said Donna Guest, deputy Asia-Pacific director at Amnesty International.
“This violent repression by the Royal Malaysian Police flies in the face of international human rights standards, and cannot be allowed to continue. Any future peaceful demonstrations should be permitted and respected by the authorities.”
Amnesty International is calling on the Malaysian authorities to investigate claims that police failed to provide prompt assistance to Baharuddin Ahmad before his death, including reports that an ambulance arrived only an hour and a half after he collapsed. Continue reading ‘Malaysia: Police Use Brutal Tactics Against Peaceful Protester’
Looking back at the events of the past few weeks, the Malaysian Government must realise and accept that neither random arrest, nor preventive detention, nor water cannons, nor tear gas, nor rain, nor the threat of any of the above and more, can quell the spirit of the people to exercise their rights to the twin freedoms of assembly and expression. The two rallies held on 9 July 2011 are eloquent testimony to the will of the people in the face of Government repression and police aggression.
The Malaysian Bar denounces the Government’s over-zealous and excessive show of power in its blatant determination to crush the people’s exercise of their Constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights. According to media and eyewitness accounts, the police used arbitrary, improper and disproportionate physical force, including assaulting some participants physically, wantonly arresting hundreds of individuals and recklessly using tear gas and water cannons on unarmed participants who were gathered in a peaceful and disciplined manner. Continue reading ‘Press Release: The Will Of The People Trumps Government Repression And Police Aggression’
Police officers arrested almost 1,700 people and fired tear gas at protesters here in Malaysia’s capital on Saturday in an attempt to prevent an afternoon rally by advocates of an overhaul of elections.
Officials said that protest leaders were among those arrested.
Demonstrators were seen scattering as the police fired tear gas on Saturday afternoon. In one late-afternoon skirmish, the police volleyed tear gas at thousands of protesters near the city’s Central Market. The Associated Press reported that the police also used chemical-laced water to disperse some demonstrators.
Roads leading into Kuala Lumpur, as well as some streets in the city, remained closed late in the afternoon as helicopters hovered over the city center.
The confrontation was the culmination of weeks of tension, as activists have called on Prime Minister Najib Razak to change the way elections are conducted. The next vote must be held by mid-2013, but there is speculation it could be called as early as this year. Continue reading ‘Thousands Of Malaysians Rally For Changes To Elections’
Police shot tear gas and sprayed water from water cannons into the compound of the Tung Shin Hospital along Jalan Pudu, according to two of its staff, in order to disperse the crowd from the Bersih 2.0 rally yesterday.
One of the staff who is in charge of ambulance management, said that the police fired tear gas three times. He added the spray from the water cannons was unable to reach the main hospital, but hit a building in the compound.
The middle-aged man who wanted to remain anonymous, said that the police started firing tear gas towards a group of people who gathered in front of the Chinese medicine hospital and the male staff hostel which are located beside the main building.
The police then broke into the compound and start arresting people, while some of the protesters successfully fled to the small hill beside Tung Shin Hospital to avoid arrest, he said when interviewed byMalaysiakini. Continue reading ‘‘Hospital Hit By Water Cannon Spray, Tear Gas’’
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