US State Department Report on Human Rights in Malaysia - 2 of 8

["M.G.G. Pillai" <pillai@mgg.pc.my>]

RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Section 1 Respect for the integrity of the person, including freedom from:

a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing

There were no reports of political killings; however, police committed a
number of extrajudicial killings.

The press reported 11 incidents of police killings in the course of
apprehension with a total of 18 persons killed. Reports of police killings
decreased significantly shortly after a change in senior police personnel in
January (see Section 1.c.). However, some cases still raised concerns. In
January a bank teller was killed in a police shoot-out. Police personnel
announced later that they were investigating the case; however, the results
of the investigation were not disclosed. Also in January, an opposition
figure in Sabah alleged that police brutality led to the death from renal
failure of a murder suspect. Police denied the allegation, and there was no
report of any investigation. In January the Bar Council called on the police
to implement a standard procedure to investigate every lethal shooting by
police; however, the police did not implement such a procedure. In March a
suspected kidnaper fell to his death from a 4th floor window at Selangor
state police headquarters. Police said that the suspect threw himself from
the window while being questioned. No investigation into this death was
reported.

In February a customs officer was detained after a man was shot and killed
during a high-speed chase in Sarawak. In July the customs officer was
convicted of manslaughter and fined roughly $1,580 (6,000 ringgit). In
August two police officers were detained in connection with the death of a
suspected drug trafficker in Sabah. Police claimed that the trafficker died
after falling and hitting his head on a stone. At year's end there were no
reports of further developments. In September a police agent was charged
with culpable homicide not amounting to murder after he shot a man seated in
his car. In February the acting inspector general of police said that police
investigations into two previous shooting incidents had shown that police
conduct in each incident was justified. The families of the victims in the
two shooting incidents said that they plan to sue the police. In October a
man asked police authorities to investigate the death of his son in prison.
The man said that his son previously had been beaten in prison and that he
did not believe that his son really had died of natural causes, as claimed
by police officials. Police responded that the prisoner had died of heart
disease in a hospital emergency room after prison guards had found him
unconscious in his cell. There were no reports of investigations into any
other police killings.

There were numerous allegations that inhuman conditions of detention caused
the deaths of illegal aliens (see Section 1.c.).

A spate of questionable police killings of suspects in the course of
apprehension in 1998 led the president of a leading human rights NGO to
question publicly whether police sometimes were acting as "judge, jury, and
executioner." In February a group of 119 domestic NGO's called for an
independent commission to look into these and other police killings. The
Government did not form such a commission. In October the Deputy Home
Minister informed Parliament that police had shot and killed 387 persons
over the past 5 years.

b. Disappearance

There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

No constitutional provision or law specifically prohibits torture, although
laws that prohibit "committing grievous hurt" encompass torture; however, at
times some police tortured, beat, and otherwise abused prisoners, detainees,
and ordinary citizens. The authorities investigated some police and other
officials for such abuses; however, the Government does not routinely
release information on the results of investigations, and whether those
responsible are punished is not always known.

Police continued to abuse detainees. Police sometimes subjected criminal
suspects and illegal alien detainees to physical and psychological torture
during interrogation and detention. During the 1998 trial of former Deputy
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, senior police officers testified that the
police had institutionalized techniques to subject some "national security"
detainees to coercive and abusive treatment. A senior police officer said
that police did not consider the legality of such tactics. During the year,
police instituted mandatory community relations and ethics courses to
address public concerns over police misconduct.

In February former Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Rahim Noor admitted
before a Royal Commission of Inquiry that in September 1998 he personally
had beaten the handcuffed and blindfolded former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar
Ibrahim while the latter was detained by police (see Section 1.d.). The
beating badly bruised Anwar's face, neck, and arms, and reportedly
temporarily left him with impaired balance and unclear vision. Rahim said
that Anwar had provoked him. The Royal Commission found Rahim culpable in
the beating of Anwar. Police subsequently charged Rahim with attempted
assault and his trial is scheduled for March 2000. If convicted, he faces a
maximum sentence of 31/2 years in prison.

Prime Minister Mahathir formed the Royal Commission after a long police
internal investigation, the results of which were announced by Attorney
General Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah in January, established that police had been
responsible for the beating of Anwar (however, the police investigation
failed to identify a culprit). The Commission found no other members of the
police culpable or complicit in the beating of Anwar or in the subsequent
cover-up. In April the Malaysian Bar Council expressed shock that the Royal
Commission had recommended that no action be taken against senior police
officers who failed to report or arrest Rahim after the beating. Anwar's
supporters called on the Prime Minister, who (at the time) oversaw the
police as Home Minister, to take responsibility for Anwar's beating.

In February a fashion designer, Mior Abdul Razak bin Yahya, swore in an
affidavit that police had threatened and abused him after he was detained in
September 1998. Mior said that because of police threats and coercion he had
confessed falsely to having had sexual relations with the former Deputy
Prime Minister. In 1998 two other alleged homosexual partners gave
consistent descriptions of how police used psychological and physical abuse
to force similar false confessions from them. Police have not been
investigated or punished for misconduct in any of these cases. In 1998
lawyers for former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim made public
allegations of another lawyer, who represented a business associate of
Anwar. The associate's lawyer had alleged that prosecutors threatened his
client with a firearms charge that carried a mandatory death sentence unless
the client agreed to fabricate evidence against Anwar. In February the
businessman was sentenced to 42 months imprisonment under an amended charge.
In August the sentence was reduced on appeal to time served.

In March opposition activist Abdul Malek bin Hussin filed a police report
accusing police of torturing him in 1998 while he was under detention
without charge under the Internal Security Act (see Section 1.d.). Malek
alleged that police had, among other abuses, beaten him unconscious and
forced him to drink their urine. The police have not responded publicly to
Malek's allegations.

There were several press reports of others who alleged police torture or
cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment while in custody. For example, in
December ten murder suspects alleged in court that police had humiliated and
beaten them after they refused to confess. There were no reports of
investigations into these or any other similar allegations.

During the year, riot police several times forcibly dispersed peaceful
demonstrators, using truncheons, water cannons, and tear gas (see Section
2.b.).

Criminal law prescribes caning as an additional punishment to imprisonment
for those convicted of some nonviolent crimes such as narcotics possession,
criminal breach of trust, and alien smuggling. Judges routinely include
caning in sentences of those convicted of such crimes as kidnaping, rape,
and robbery. Some state Islamic laws, which bind only Muslims (see Section
1.e.), also prescribe caning. The caning, which is carried out with a
1/2-inch-thick wooden cane, commonly causes welts, and sometimes causes
scarring. Male criminals age 50 and above and women are exempted from
caning. According to the provisions of the Child Act passed in October, male
children may be given up to ten strokes of a "light cane."

An Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) report issued in February, stemming from
a late 1998 investigation of the case of imprisoned opposition
Parliamentarian Lim Guan Eng (see Section 1.e.) stated that the conditions
of Lim's imprisonment did not comply with the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules
(Treatment of Prisoners) and the U.N. Body of Principles for the Protection
of All Persons under any Form of Detention or Imprisonment. The report cited
portions of the Minimum Rules that concern light, ventilation, and proper
bedding, and Principle 6 of the Body of Principles, which prohibits torture,
or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. However, the delegation that
drafted this report did not visit Lim in prison, and therefore could not
make direct observations. The Government said that Lim was detained under
the same conditions as other prisoners and in accord with the colonial-era
Prison Rules (1952) and the Prisons Act (1995), which, the Government
contended, met the standards of the U.N. Minimum Rules. In April Deputy Home
Minister Ong Ka Ting told Parliament that the Government had completed a
review of prison rules and made amendments that would improve the management
of prisoners. Ong said that the amendments would be promulgated after the
approval of the Attorney General. In November Deputy Home Minister Datuk Onk
Ka Ting said that a mattress would soon be issued to every prisoner. There
were no other developments reported by year's end.

Credible reports by former prisoners indicate that guards at some prisons
regularly beat prisoners convicted of criminal offenses.

Prison overcrowding is a serious problem. In August the prisons director
general said that the Government plans to build a new prison and expand
others. He said that the country's 35 prisons hold 27,400 prisoners; total
designed capacity is 20,000. "Security" prisoners (see Section 1.d.) are
detained in a separate detention center.

The Government holds many illegal aliens under inhuman conditions. NGO's,
former detainees, and others make credible allegations of inadequate food,
poor medical care, poor sanitation, and abuse by guards. Detention
conditions are so bad that they pose a serious threat to life and health.
There were many allegations that such inhuman conditions caused the deaths
of an unknown number of illegal aliens. In July, after 3 days without
adequate supplies of water, 192 illegal aliens escaped from the Lenggeng
detention center. Testimony during the trial of NGO activist Irene Fernandez
(see Section 2.a.) described past inhuman conditions at illegal alien
detention camps.

The Government has an agreement with the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) providing for visits to certain categories of prisoners and has
not posed any objection to such visits. However, the ICRC has not visited
for several years. Other NGO's and the media generally are not allowed to
monitor prison conditions. Access to illegal alien detention camps is
restricted and the Government in some cases even prevents representatives of
foreign embassies from visiting their nationals in the camps.

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