The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) will hold a public inquiry into the conditions of Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees at the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping next week.

The three-day inquiry, beginning June 18, will be heard at the Taiping sessions court by a three-member panel chaired by Suhakam vice-chairperson Harun Hashim, and assisted by Prof Mohd Hamdan Adnan and Asiah Abu Samah.

"We have identified about 30 witnesses so far, including medical personnel and the authorities at the Kamunting detention camp.

"But not all of the witnesses will necessarily be called in to testify. It will depend on the need and situation," said Hamdan when contacted today.

Hamdan, who is also the complaints and inquiry working group chairperson and Asiah, newly-appointed in April, also sit on the visitation sub-working group which conducts visits to incarceration centres nationwide, including the Kamunting detention camp and prisons.

The inquiry will encompass a cross-section of ISA detainees held in Kamunting, including members of the Shia faith, the Al-Ma'unah martial arts cult members and the six reformasi activists.

Alleged human rights violations

This is a follow-up to complaints lodged by family members of ISA detainees over alleged human rights violations in the detention camp.

More than two months ago, the six reformasi activists and ISA protestors also held a hunger strike which lasted 11 days, to mark the anniversary of the first ISA dragnet since Operasi Lalang in 1987.

The Kamunting camp houses those detained under the ISA, including political prisoners, as well as 'pre-release' detainees, or inmates awaiting release by prison authorities.

ISA detainees are initially placed under a 60-day preventive detention order by the police to facilitate 'investigations'. If they are not released at the end of this period, they will be sent to the Kamunting camp to serve a two-year detention order signed by the home affairs minister.

Various lobby groups, from non-governmental organisations such as the Abolish ISA Movement to pockets of student movements, have been mobilising public support to pressure for the abolition of the Act.