Sarawak CID chief Abdul Razak Abdul Hassan has assured the people of Sibu that the identities of informants would be kept secret by the police.

"Let me state here that the police are professional in this matter. Information provided to the police will also not be leaked," he told reporters in Sibu today.

Appealing to the public to come forward with information to help police solve recent crime cases, Abdul Razak said if they were worried about the identities of informants being revealed at the local police level, they could write directly to Sarawak police chief DCP Talib Jamal.

The CID chief was in Sibu to attend a briefing on the progress of police investigations into several cases of violent crime and to give directions on what needs to be done to allay public fears.

Yesterday, Sibu divisional deputy police chief Supt Han Hipeni said the people of Sibu were reluctant to come forward with information and be witnesses in court and this was hampering police efforts.

He told malaysiakini today that the police were using alternatives to pursue their investigations, including sending the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) to go to the ground to look for information.

"We will leave no stones unturned to get down to the roots of the problems," Han Hipeni assured.

Corruption somewhere?

Sibu police also released the names and photos of two persons they say could assist them in their investigations into two murder cases, including the one on Sunday in which a 40-year-old man was brutally stabbed to death in his house.

The other was the fatal shooting of a man in a coffee-shop in September last year.

Meanwhile, a local resident told malaysiakini that the Sibu community was 'very angry' at the many incidents of violent crime taking place in the town over the past few months.

He said that perpetrators of the serious crimes seemed to have got away scot-free because of police inaction.

"Everything seems to be pointing at corruption in some places," he said.

The crime situation in Sibu also hit the national spotlight last week with Bukit Aman CID Director Musa Hasan blasting Sibu police chief ACP Sebastian Gaong and his men for not acting fast enough to curb criminal activities in the town.