The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) will send a letter to the police to seek access to the seven Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees, its commissioner Anuar Zainal Abidin said today. He, however, was unable to elaborate when this will be done.

"We will write to them soon. Yes, we do want to see the seven ... to look at their conditions," said Anuar.

Seven reformasi activists, most of them Keadilan leaders, were arrested under the ISA, which allows detention without trial, in a police crackdown on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The police said that the detainees posed a threat to national security and were planning violent street demonstrations and other militant means to topple the government.

They seven are Keadilan deputy president Tian Chua, party Youth leaders Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor, N Gobalakrishnan, Abdul Ghani Harun, Free Anwar Campaign (Freeanwar.com) webmaster Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin, social activist cum malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais and Saari Sungib, organiser of the 'Black 14' event tomorrow.

The 'Black 14' event, to commemorate the second anniversary of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim's sentencing in 1998 for abuse of power, will involve the handing over of a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

Strongly-worded

On Wednesday, family members of five of the detainees lodged a complaint with Suhakam, requesting the commission to intervene to safeguard the rights of those nabbed.

Suhakam followed up with a strongly-worded statement the same evening regretting the use of the ISA against the seven and called for their immediate release. The commission added that if the seven had committed any offence, they should be charged and tried in an open court.

"While Suhakam recognises that the government has, over the years, released many of those detained under the ISA, the present crackdown is cause for concern," it said in the statement.

"We strongly urge the authorities to allow families, lawyers and doctors immediate access to the detainees," it added.

Anuar declined to comment on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's remarks yesterday that the police, not Suhakam, were responsible for the security of the nation.

No inquiry

On another matter, Anuar ruled out a public inquiry into last month's racial violence at Petaling Jaya Selatan which resulted in six deaths and scores injured. He said, however, that the commission will nevertheless do an investigation into the matter.

He added that the decision was made at a Suhakam meeting held last Wednesday.

"The reasons for the clashes are being dealt with by other relevant government authorities. These agencies are looking into the socio-economic problems in these areas and we don't want to interfere into that," said Anuar.

"We are not experts to look into the socio-economic aspects of the affected areas. We will leave it to the relevant agencies," he said.

He added that complaints regarding insufficient police protection for residents at the affected areas can be investigated without calling for an inquiry.

Anuar said that the commission will continue to probe into the clashes and will give its recommendations in due time.

"For the purposes of our investigations, we will seek more details from everyone concerned. The investigations will go on as we need to find out the truth," he said.

"I think the question of sufficient police protection has been answered with the setting up of police posts at the area. We will look into this to see if this is sufficient," he added.

Dissatisfied

Late last month, the Parti Rakyat Insan Malaysia (Prim) handed a memorandum to Suhakam urging the commission to investigate and initiate an urgent inquiry into the violent attacks at Petaling Jaya Selatan.

The memorandum said that there was insufficient police protection for Indians, who were the main victims, during the racial violence.

When contacted today, Prim pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said he was "disappointed and dissatisfied" with Suhakam for not holding a public inquiry into the matter.