Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) said today that it was declining a request by the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) for more material on the recent Petaling Jaya Selatan racial clashes which killed six people.

"It will be a mere duplicity for us to submit more material to them. There is sufficient material on the clashes in the two memoranda we submitted to Suhakam," said Prim's pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar.

He was commenting on Suhakam's letter to the party yesterday, requesting the latter's help to get 'affidavits from all victims, family members and other witnesses who could provide information about the incident'.

Suhakam also again informed Uthayakumar that it will have to study the reports prepared by the relevant government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) before considering its next course of action.

Prim has been pushing Suhakam to hold an inquiry into the violent clashes which resulted in the six deaths and left scores others injured, mainly Indians.

The clashes, which lasted for four days beginning March 8, was concentrated along several squatter settlements and low-cost housing areas along Jalan Klang Lama.

Prim had urged Suhakam to investigate the tragedy and identify the cause and the instigators behind it.

Unreasonable request

Elaborating further, Uthayakumar said the party decided, at a central committee meeting yesterday not to adhere to the commission's request because it was 'unreasonable'.

"Our legal advisors have also told us that Suhakam should actually be getting statutory declarations and not affidavits from the victims," he said.

"In any event, they have copies of at least 10 police reports from the victims that we have given them. In our view, the reports have more legal authority than affidavits and Suhakam can rely on them and our memoranda in deciding to hold an inquiry," he reasoned.

However, Uthayakumar said that the party was willing to cooperate with Suhakam to help bring all the victims to an inquiry if the commission decides to hold one.

Not serious

He also said that there was no need for Suhakam to be waiting for reports before deciding on whether to hold an inquiry.

"If they want these reports, they could give a time frame to the government agencies involved to submit their reports, he said.

"It has been more than 120 days since the clashes occurred and if these agencies have not completed their reports, then I think they are not serious about it," added Uthayakumar.