Mr Josef Roy, the co-ordinator for Amnesty International Malaysia, has come up with an impressive list of countries and figures to show that anti-war demonstrators worldwide are being physically abused by authorities in his letter Backlash against human rights worldwide .

He cites Belgium, Egypt, the UK, the US, Germany, Spain, Sudan, Turkey and Yemen as places where demonstrators have been subjected to various kinds of physical abuse. Truly impressive fact-gathering (if these are in fact facts).

With the letter being published just a day after Malaysian cops tear-gassed and arrested anti-war demonstrators in the streets of KL, o­ne wonders why nothing was said about the abuse of the Malaysian anti-war demonstrators.

I have a very high regard for Amnesty International for taking o­n a cause with a high moral purpose and daunting odds of success. I don't know all the facts behind the motives and timing of the letter, but o­n the surface at least, it looks like another example of the self-serving, head-in-the-sand drivel being put out by many anti-war (or more accurately, anti-US) interests, and does Amnesty International no good.