Three wives of Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees from the Al-Maunah group lodged their complaints to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) on Friday.`

The three - Mokhtar Senik, Fauzi Mohamad and Mohd Radhi Mohd Razali - have been detained for more than three years at the Kamunting detention camp in Perak.. They were detained in July 2000.

They were incarcerated for their participation in Al-Maunah and allegedly plotting a militant exercise to topple the government.

No explanation

Mokhtar's wife, Siti Hajar Mohd Zain, acting as the spokesperson for the group said that although her husband has been detained for more than three years, she was still unable to get any response from the authorities on her request to know whether her husband's detention wuld be further extended.

The home minister holds the discretion to sign the initial detention of 60 days and a subsequent two years detention under the ISA.

"My husband was never involved directly in the Jenalik incident in July 3, 2000. He was unaware of any plan or bad motive of the Al-Maunah top leadership, until the media reported it," Siti Hajar said.

"H was involved with the Al-Maunah movement because he was attracted to its aims and objectives which was published openly in the media. The group was also registered with the Registrar of Society and approved by the Selangor Department of Islamic Religion," she added.

Siti Hajar said after her husband, a religious school principal in Kuantan, was detained, the family of eight constantly faced financial difficulty.

Meanwhile, Fauzi's wife, Norul Ashikin Yusoff said she has to sell her house recently in order to maintain her family.

"My youngest child is three - born just as my husband was detained. Now I don't know when their father would be released," she said.

Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) president Zaid Kamaruddin said that as the three detainees have shown good behaviour during their years under detention, they should be released.

He said the government should release the remaining ISA detainees before the movement launches another round of international campaigns - as what was done for the ex-reformasi detainees - to call for their release.

He was happy to note that more family members of detainees were approaching AIM for help as "this is a good sign to boost the abolish ISA campaign".

Ensure good treatment

AIM secretary Yap Swee Seng also urged Suhakam to look into the financial predicament of the families of ISA detainees.

Noting that many detainees lost their jobs and salaries while being held, Yap said it was cruel for employers to terminate their jobs or stop paying them their salaries as they were detained without trial and had not committed any offence.

"Even when Dr Syed Husin Ali (PRM president and former UM professor) was detained for six long years during the 70s, Universiti Malaya still paid his salary," Yap said.

Receiving the memorandum from the ISA wives, Suhakam commissioner Prof Dr Mohd Hamdan Adnan reiterated the commission's stand that it objected to any form of detention without trial.

He said the commission will seek an explanation from the Home Ministry as soon as possible on the over three years' detention of the three complainants' husbands.

Last Friday, Suhakam also heard another groups of wives complaint that they were harassed by detention camp officials and special branch personnel. Their husbands were being detained under ISA for allegedly being members of terror groups Kumpulan Mujahiddin Malaysia or the Jemaah Islamiah.