The 60-day initial detention under the Internal Security Act - where detainees are often held in 'incommunicado' - was to gather additional intelligence of their alleged involvement in activities prejudicial to national security, stated the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) ISA inquiry report today.

Special Branch Social Intelligence Assistant Director Anuar Bashah Mohd Sohore, who has over 30 years experience in handling ISA cases, said it was not a brainwashing session.

He said interrogation, which was the primary method of eliciting information, was carried out without the use of physical force.

His was among the 16 testimonies recorded by a Suhakam panel during a public inquiry into the detention conditions under the ISA held in mid-2002.

The inquiry was prompted by a hunger strike by six reformasi detainees in the Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping, Perak.

In the 61-page report, released at a press conference at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Suhakam reiterated that the public inquiry was a specific exposition into detention conditions and that its Law Reform Working Group was studying in detail the other aspects of ISA detention.