Human rights watchdog Suaram has slammed the Petaling Jaya district police chief over police conduct during the anti-ISA candlelight vigil at Dataran MBPJ on Sunday.

In an open letter addressed to OCPD Arjunaidi Mohamed today, the NGO condemned the "high-handedness and abuse of powers" by about 50 uniformed police officers and men and 30 men from the Light Strike Force.

Suaram placed full responsibility on Arjunaidi ( left ) for the "brutal" dispersal of arjunaidi mohamed the 300-strong crowd as they began singing the Negaraku while marching out of Amcorp Mall.

"Instead of acceding to the organisers' request to negotiate terms for the vigil and provide time for the crowd to disperse peacefully, you ordered your officers to move in forcibly on the crowd, which resulted in a situation of chaos and fear," the letter said.

"In your arrogance, you even denied the legitimacy of the permit given by the Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya the organisers."

Thirty people, including vigil organiser Abolish the ISA movement (GMI) chief Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, Parti Sosialis Malaysia secretary-general S Arutchelvan and PKR supreme council member Badrul Hisham Shaharin were arrested that night.

The letter said those who were detained were "shoved, beaten, slapped, dragged, choked and verbally abused" by the police.

Intimidation tactics used

It also listed several "intimidation tactics" used by the police to "frighten" those who gathered outside the PJ district police headquarters after the arrests, including deploying water cannon trucks and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel.

In addition to that, traffic police summoned the vehicles of people who waited for those arrested, while another three people were also arrested outside the police station.

"However, we regard intimidation of the highest order to be your action anti-isa vigil in petaling jaya amcorp mall 4 to compel the lawyers representing those arrested to give a separate witness statement," added Suaram.

It demanded a public apology from Arjunaidi to the participants of the vigil as well as to those who were arrested. It also urged Arjunaidi to not take legal action against those who were arrested.

In a separate press statement today, Suaram praised the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) for sending an official monitoring team comprising commissioners James Nayagam and Muhammad Sha'ani, and five officers, to the vigil.

"This is indeed a positive step forward following Suhakam's refusal to do the same exactly one year ago, for the massive anti-ISA rally in August 2009, which subsequently saw 589 individuals arrested."