Threatening and abusive phone calls are considered 'standard stuff' for members of the non-governmental group Police Watch and Human Rights Committee.

Its president RN Rajah ( right ) said ever since the five-year-old body started championing cases of custodial deaths on behalf of victim's families, its members have received numerous calls warning them to back off.

Most of the time the callers get abusive, said Rajah, and indicate clearly that they are unhappy with the group's combative style of questioning and challenging police conduct.

"They usually ask us what we hope to achieve when we file a police report. We suspect the calls came from those within the police force because they seemed to know when and where we filed our reports," he told malaysiakini .

But Monday's incident involving group member and lawyer, P Uthayakumar, was something else altogether.

The 42-year-old lawyer was threatened at gunpoint and assaulted by a number of men in a residential area in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

Brickfields case

Uthayakumar ( left ) believes the assault was related to the most recent case championed by Police Watch: where a 24-year-old detainee went missing after he 'escaped' from the Brickfields district police headquarters.

The police said G Francis Udayapan, jumped off the first floor of the station building, escaped through a hole in the fence, and proceeded to jump into the nearby Klang river.

But the detainee's mother rejected the explanation. It was then that Uthayakumar and the rest of the Police Watch team stepped in.

In their usual, unflinching approach, the activists pressed the police to clarify their explanation, stressing that a case of such urgency should not take long to settle, unless the police have hidden motives to do so.

And when no explanation came forth, the group pressured the higher authorities for answers. But aside from the new Kuala Lumpur police chief Mustafa Abdullah - who took over the case from Brickfields - no other top brass met with the group.

"At every level, we were blocked from getting answers. The district chief first said he could not reveal details of the investigation. The KL police chief said he could not reveal because he had just taken over the case," said Rajah.

In response, Police Watch raised a stink on behalf of the detainee's mother. They lodged police reports against Bukit Aman CID Director Musa Hassan and Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar for "aiding and abetting in the murder".

In the meantime, they spoke to the press and sent memoranda to the Special Commission on the Police and the internal security minister (who is also the prime minister).

Investigations crawled on, but after 22 days, Musa announced that federal police were taking over the probe on grounds that they do not wish to be seen as biased in their investigations.

Work continues

Then, in late April, Uthayakumar's car, which was parked in his office building, had its windows smashed. A police report was lodged.

The lawyer said this was a warning for him and his colleagues to brace themselves for more, since none of them were planning to lighten up on the pressure.

"At this stage, we would logically have two choices: either continue our work, or stop completely. For us, the latter is not an option," said Uthayakumar when met at his office yesterday.

Still nursing a bandaged arm, he said members of the Police Watch team have worked too hard - on their numerous cases of questionable deaths under custody, of bodies fished out of rivers with unexplainable bruises - to change priorities at this point.

"We understand the concerns of friends and families for our safety, but at this point, we cannot stop what we're doing. We have to think about the families of all those victims who have come to us for help.

"Friends tell me that I should slow down...but I ask them in return: if the same happens to your family, brother or sister, will you also tell me to stop?"

On the system of policing, Uthayakumar said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's decision to set up the police commission, in reaction to widespread complaints, needs to be applauded.

But if both Police Watch and the prime minister are on the same page, then why is it that no one stepped in when the NGO and the detainee's family kept getting sidestepped by the cops each time they tried to get a dialogue going, he posed.

No higher authority interfered when CID chief Musa insisted that he would only dialogue with one person pertaining to Francis' case.

"All we asked for was that six individuals consisting of Francis' parents, two lawyers and two NGO workers be allowed to meet with Musa. I don't believe six is an unreasonable number. Is Musa telling us that he is afraid of speaking to six individuals?"

Asked if Police Watch's aggressive style was a hindrance in enabling proper dialogue with top police brass and policy-makers, Uthayakumar argued that diplomacy had failed as well.

"Even before Police Watch started, we sent letters to the IGP and others. For the longest time we tried all diplomatic avenues. We documented evidence. We even approached retired police

chiefs. We exhausted all the diplomatic avenues, but yet nothing worked."

Political will

What was lacking, said the lawyer, was political will at the highest levels.

Yet, political leaders have been perfectly happy making public statements on state brutality practised by other countries, Rajah added.

"When it comes to Iraq, we can rely on the prime minister and the deputy prime minister to say all the right things, to call on other governments to hold their soldiers and officers accountable. So why is it that we cannot expect them to take this same position at home?" he asked.

It is not as though the government is stumped for solutions to fix the force, Uthayakumar pointed out. "As we have said before, there needs to be an independent body to look into the complaints made against the police.

"But right now, the only independent body we have is the police commission. And I'm not sure how far they are willing to clean the force," he said.

Referring to a recent directive by the premier, Uthayakumar said despite the call for the commission to act on cases now, it is disconcerting to note that the commission has not jumped at the chance to investigate potentially damaging cases, like the one involving Francis.

Or dig up old, outstanding cases.

For example, nothing has since resulted from the investigations into the case of Vivashanu Pillai, a detainee whose body was found on Aug 2002. His bruised body was discovered three days after he was reported missing from police custody. He too, was never charged with any crime.

"His body was found with chili powder all over his wounds. It has been almost two years, but until now, there is no reply. I can bet my last penny that nothing will come out of this case," said Uthayakumar.

For Police Watch, it is no longer surprising that so-called 'investigation' into cases of detainees being beaten or found dead, fail to show up with any real results.

With zero political will, said Rajah, there's little that pressure groups like Police Watch can do when the police decides to clamp down on information.

"At every level, there is no one in this country who can be held accountable over custodial beatings and deaths. The way our police force is today is reflection of decades of unchecked power."

No confidence

Uthayakumar said the lack of inroads made into various cases they have championed only goes to show how powerless public interest and human rights groups like Police Watch are in this country.

"We often feel really powerless and unable to do anything. But when the victim's mothers and families come to us and plead for help, I really feel their pain. I have no choice but to feel that I have to do something, because they place such hopes in us."

On his assault case, Uthayakumar said he reserves all further statements to the police commission, if at all the body decides to pursue an independent probe regarding the matter.

All evidence that he managed to gather at the attack site - a Marlboro cigarette pack and a lighter - were passed to the police, so it would be surprising if they are not able to dust the items for prints.

"I have no confidence in the police. To me, giving a statement to them would be a waste of time since I believe they (the police) are involved. But we hope that the police commission will step in."