Suaram strongly condemns the Royal Malaysian Police on the shooting of five men in Klang on Nov 8 that resulted in their deaths. There is a high number of deaths by police shooting and the police should stop maintaining the same reason of self-defence for shooting suspects to death and take measures to avoid such events from recurring.

Suaram questions how it was possible that all the five suspects were shot dead simultaneously while they were in a moving vehicle as reported in the media. We also question the inconsistencies of the police account of the even.. Initial news reports by the New Straits Times and Bernama described that police officers stopped the suspects’ vehicle and the suspects tried to run down the police officers.

The suspects then opened fire at the police officers and the police returned fire, causing all five suspects to die on the spot. However, when denying allegations that the police had a ‘shoot-to- kill’ approach, The Star quoted Federal CID Director Commissioner Bakri Zinin as saying:

‘There was a high-speed car chase where the robbers tried to force the pursuing police vehicle off the road while firing shots indiscriminately at them. Police had no choice but to return fire.’

Due to the poor track record of the police and inconsistencies in accounts of incidences such as the one that occurred on Nov 8, there is a perception that there is an attempt by the police to cover up actual events.

While we recognise a policeman’s right to self-defence, Suaram is of the view that even if a suspect was the first to open fire (as alleged to have occurred in the Nov 8 incident), the police must use other procedures to apprehend the suspects that are proportionate to the actions of the suspects. Ultimately, the lethal use of firearms must be the last resort and not the first.

Death by police shooting is not an uncommon practice in this country. According to our documentation and monitoring, in 2008 there were 44 cases of death by police shootings with possibly more cases unreported.

The perception that the police ‘shoot-to-kill’ has developed because in many of the police shooting cases, circumstances indicated that the police did not try to apprehend their suspects but rather, resorted to the use of firearms at the first instance of attack by suspects.

In virtually every case, the police claimed that the suspects were armed and dangerous, and that returning fire was necessary. But a closer examination would reveal that in a large number of the shooting cases, the suspects were only armed with weapons such as knives or ‘parang’. These cases are clearly in contravention of the principles of restraint and proportionality for international standards on the use of firearms by law enforcement officers.

While much attention has been given to the recent deaths of Indian Malaysians in police shootings, Suaram’s documentation shows that these shooting cases are not merely confined to a single ethnic group. In 2008, 25 of the 44 deaths by police shootings documented by Suaram that year were foreigners.

It is therefore an issue of the failure of the government to discipline a police force which is today operating with critically weak procedures, lack of accountability and impunity. The low public confidence in the police force today is largely due to its lack of accountability. This has been made worse by these recent police shooting cases and the attempts by the police in defending itself without proper and transparent investigation procedures.

In light of the recent police shooting cases, there is an urgent need to end this impunity by immediately:

1. Declaring and reviewing the current procedures of the use of firearms on criminal suspects to ensure that police officers comply with international standards; and

2. Establishing accountability procedures after police shootings occur to ensure that police officers are accountable for their actions.

Suaram also strongly calls upon the government to immediately act on the recommendation by the royal commission on police procedures for an inquest to be conducted for every death within a month of the incident. This should include all deaths by police shootings.

The recommendation states that magistrates and government medical officers must be informed about each death and that the bodies must not be moved prior to that. Upon being informed, a magistrate and a government medical officer must immediately inspect the body at the site of the incident.

In the longer term, the government must establish a Coroner’s Court - as recommended by the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code – to carry out investigations on all deaths by police shootings as well as of those in police custody.

The writer is coordinator, Suaram.