The Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) insisted on a meeting room being cleared of Special Branch officers while it was in the process of lodging a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia(Suhakam) today.

The 30-strong delegation began the proceedings with a request for all police officers to leave, as the hearing would involve complaints on the conduct of police who had prevented the launch of AIM's 'ISA mala fide ' campaign on Oct 1.

Two plainclothes officers left, taking along their camera and tape recorder. About 20 minutes later, two other men entered the room with a video camera and tape recorder. Their presence was immediately noticed and reported to Human Rights Commissioner Asiah Abu Samah, who then asked them to leave as well.

More than 100 police personnel and Federal Reserve Unit members had sealed off the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH) before the launch of the AIM campaign. They dispersed about 300 participants outside with some force, resulting in 10 people being slightly injured.

The campaign was to have been based on a recent Federal Court ruling that the detention of six reformasi detainees for the initial 60-day period of interrogation under the Internal Security Act was unlawful and mala fide (in bad faith).

The ruling, however, did not affect the status of the two-year detention order signed by Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, although it was based on information obtained during interrogation.

Video clip

The AIM delegation, led by chairperson Zaid Kamaruddin and secretary S Arutchelvan, included human rights body Suaram co-ordinator Yap Swee Seng, committee members and the families of the ISA detainees.

In its complaint, AIM urged Suhakam to conduct an investigation into the misuse of power and use of violence by police before the planned event. AIM said this was necessary to restore and uphold freedom of assembly and expression.

The delegation also showed a video clip of the incident, showing visuals of the police pushing back the crowd with their shields and using their batons on some individuals nearest to them.

Asiah, who asked the delegation several questions, told malaysiakini that the complaint would be brought into the commissioners' meeting scheduled for next month, but declined to elaborate.

Suhakam assistant secretary Mohd Nasir AB Hadi said the commission had written to the police two weeks ago asking for an explanation of their action, but had yet to receive a reply.

'Double standards'

Zaid told Asiah that the police action was "political motivated" to clamp down on criticism of the ISA. He also alleged that the police were guilty of applying double standards in dealing with public protests.

"Why didn't the police stop Umno Youth from demonstrating against Suqiu outside the SCAH gate in 1999? Why wasn't the recent 'Thank you (Prime Minister) Dr Mahathir (Mohamad)' gathering at the Bukit Jalil Stadium stopped? Is it true that (only) those assemblies in line with government interests are allowed?" he asked.

He said it was the duty of police to act impartially and professionally. The right to assemble should also be applied equally and without discrimination.

"Once the police are seen to be prejudiced against those having different opinions from the government, the whole institution of the police force would be downgraded to a mere oppressive tool of the government and it will lose whatever credibility it has," he said.

Yap, who also spoke at the hearing, said the police should know and play their role in maintaining public order for smooth exercise of the right of assembly, and not clamp down on the rights.

"Last Friday's protest in front of the British High Commission against the US-led proposal to attack Iraq went smoothly. It was attended by more than 1,000 people and was held in a public place under police observation," he said.

"This proves that the crowd can be self-disciplined. They (the people) just want to gather peacefully. Most of the time, it is the police who provoke chaos."

'Don't pre-judge'

AIM also said it had co-operated by writing to the police to inform them of the proposed event, even though it held the opinion that a meeting in private premises did not require a police permit.

"The police should not pre-judge that an assembly would lead to untoward incidents as this would not be fair to the organisers. The police should come to the scene and judge the situation objectively and professionally," Zaid added.

Police based their action on Oct 1 on powers under Section 27 of the Police Act, which empowers them to stop activities that take place in a private location if they deem that these are prejudicial to the national security interest.

However, they had not intervened in two previous events organised at the same venue by the movement the launching of AIM last year and a support campaign for the detainees' hunger strike on April this year.