Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees should file their complaints, via their families, on the conditions at the infamous Kamunting detention camp ahead of a Parliamentary caucus' fact-finding visit there on June 17.

The cross-party caucus has been seeking to visit the camp in Perak for the past six months following a skirmish there that left several detainees and camp personnel injured.

"We welcome the detainees and families to e-mail or contact us to present their complaints," said caucus deputy head and Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang when contacted.

Admitting that it will be difficult to re-examine the alleged abuses during the riot last December, he said the caucus was more interested in the current conditions at Kamunting.

"What I am interested most, is to see the actual detention conditions of detainees rather than the official briefings by the camp's authorities," added Lim, a former ISA detainee himself.

The visit will be spearheaded by the head f the 20-member caucus, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

Degrading treatment

Since its inception more than three decades ago, Kamunting opened its doors to the media for the first time in May last year following allegations that detainees were being tortured.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar visited the camp and spoke to detainees following claims that they were, among others, stripped naked and subjected to sexually humiliating interrogations.

ISA detainees are those classified as a threat to national security and held without trial for a period of two years, which can ben extended by the government.

The law, which was enacted in order to contain the communist insurgency, later earned notoriety when it was used to clampdown on political dissent.

In its recent report, the Royal police commission recommended that the initial 60-day detention period under the ISA be reduced to 30, but stopped short of calling for a review or repeal of the draconian law.