Shooting dead of suspected criminals by the police have not abated at all despite the forces coming under severe criticisms as 15 people have been killed thus far since the beginning of the year alone.

The police watch committee of the Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia revealed these figures, as obtained from media reports, today in a memorandum to the Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and the attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail.

The dead toll is alarming although the figures are marginally less than that of the first six months of last year.

According to Prim's earlier memorandum , by the end of last June, the media had reported of at least 21 incidents of police killing and for the whole of last year, at least 39 people were killed by the police in shootouts.

The party has been a vocal critic of police brutality, especially on the numerous incidents in which suspected criminals have been shot dead when they could have been apprehended without the need to be killed. It won the 2002 Suaram human rights award for its efforts.

No checks and balance

In its memorandum today, the party again urged Abdul Gani to call for inquests into the deaths of those shot dead by the police.

It also wanted the chief justice to instruct all magistrates to hold inquires into the deaths, even if there are no instructions as such from the AG's Chambers.

The party also stressed that it was eager to find out why these suspected criminals were not caught alive and what was the necessity to kill them.

"In almost 90 percent of such cases, the polices' version of events are almost similar, that the suspects were acting in a suspicious manner and had fired a gun first, and was shot dead when the police returned fire," said the police watchdog committee member K Panirselvam.

"Usually weapons will be found on the slained suspects, but without any injuries to the police, who at most times are from the special forces.

"All facts pertaining to these shootouts are controlled by the police and there are no checks and balance to validate their claims," added Panirselvam.

Conflicting figures

He also said that the police should apprehend these suspects alive and charge them in courts of law to prove their guilt.

Alternatively, Panirselvam suggested that the police use stun guns or plastic bullets to catch the suspects.

Last year, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung revealed in parliament that a total of 19 policemen have been killed in the line of duty and 579 criminals were shot dead by the police between 1981 and February 2002.

In 2000, then deputy home minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir had revealed that a total of 635 Malaysians were shot dead in police operations between 1989 and 1999.

The government has yet to clarify this discrepancy in the figures.