DAP questions discrepancies in police shootout figures

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Opposition party DAP today claimed there were discrepancies in the statistics revealed by the government on the number of people killed in shootouts with the police in the past two decades.

Party chairperson Lim Kit Siang said while the Home Ministry revealed that 579 suspected criminals were killed in shootouts with the police in the last 20 years, an earlier statistic provided by the ministry listed a higher number.

"Former deputy home affairs minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir told Parliament in April 1999 that in the previous 10 years, 635 people had been shot dead by the police," said Lim in a statement.

Yesterday, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung revealed the new figures in Parliament and added in the same 20-year period, 19 police officers were killed in shootouts as well.

Chor said those gunned down were involved in various crimes such as "robbery, theft, kidnapping, drug offences, firearms trafficking and possession, assaulting and trying to escape from police roadblocks, firing at police, running amok, fighting, murder and illegal immigrants cases".

"Who is right, Chor or Abdul Kadir? Can Chor give a satisfactory account of such a great discrepancy in the statistics?" asked Lim.

However, he suggested that yesterday's figures could not be right as in a meeting between opposition leaders and the police in 1999, Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai did not dispute the figures provided by Abdul Kadir.

'Trigger-happy' cops

The veteran politician also urged Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to make a ministerial statement in Parliament to explain the discrepancy.

Abdullah must also explain what measures are taken to ensure that no innocent people are killed in these shootouts, stressed Lim

He also called for the setting up of a royal commission of inquiry to investigate all cases of police shootouts.

Lim added that Parliament should also decide if an independent police ombudsman should be set up to oversee police misconduct and abuses of power.

The police have been lambasted by human rights groups in the past as being 'trigger-happy' due to the high number of suspected criminals killed.

Opposition Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia submitted a memorandum to the government two years ago highlighting its concern over the alarming figures.

It said that according to statistics based on press reports then, an average of 1.3 person are shot dead per week.

One the most controversial cases was the death of a pregnant woman suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of a politician's son.

The woman was killed together with her husband and several others when the police's elite Special Operations Force stormed her house in Kuala Lumpur three years ago.

The police later claimed the woman, who was eight months pregnant, was a victim of crossfire.

A year later, another controversy erupted when a young doctor was shot dead in Kuala Lumpur.

It was reported that two police officers approached the doctor and his companion who were seated in a car and ordered them to alight from the vehicle.

However, the doctor drove off, prompting one of the policeman to open fire, killing him on the spot.

The policeman was charged and found guilty of negligence. The deceased's father subsequently filed a civil suit against the police and the government.

Meanwhile, an eerie example of the police's 'trigger happy' attitude was raised by human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) in a report last year.

Suaram documented the experience of one Mr How who was allegedly forced to play a game of Russian Roulette while in police custody.

The 26-year-old mechanic suffered a gunshot wound to the side of his head and became blind in one of his eyes.



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