The Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) today lodged a report against the police for the false arrest of 48 people during the protest gathering against the Internal Security Act in Kamunting, Perak, last Saturday.

Social activist S Arutchelvan who represented the movement, lodged the report at the Taiping District Police Headquarters at about 10am today.

He named the accused as Taiping deputy police chief Supt Adnan Rahmat and other police officers who were involved in arresting, dispersing and threatening the people who had gathered near the Kamunting detention camp on Saturday.

The 300-strong crowd had wanted to submit a memorandum to the camp administrators to express concern over the welfare and health of the ISA detainees.

Arutchelvan said the police report lodged today will enable investigation into, among others, allegations of false arrest and violations of human rights committed by the police officers at the scene.

Among those arrested were Arutchelvan himself, Keadilan's Abdul Ghani Haroon, Fairus Hashim and Hashim Haroon, PAS' Salleh Osman, Community Development Centre's R Selvam and Parti Sosialis Malaysia's Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj.

Internet-based Radiqradio journalist Sevan Doraisamy and two cameramen - opposition organ Harakah 's Nasir Sudin and Singapore-based Channel News Asia 's Hanafiah Hamzah - were also taken into custody.

All 48 arrested were released at about midnight on the same day. Eleven who reported to the Taiping police headquarters today were told to come back on Nov 30. The rest had been told to return on Nov 6.

No response

In his police report, Arutchelvan explained that of late, the movement was very concerned about the condition of the ISA detainees and wanted to submit a memorandum to the authorities.

It sent a letter dated Oct 22 by fax and courier to the Kamunting camp commandant relaying its intention to present the memorandum at about 11am on Oct 27.

"Besides that, we also sent two letters dated Aug 7 and Oct 3 respectively to the Taiping police chief requesting for a dialogue, but there was no response," he said.

Arutchelvan reasoned that the camp commandant did not asked them to cancel their plans either.

As the event was peaceful, Arutchelvan said, he was surprised by the high-handed operation carried out by the police which disrupted traffic flow and forced many people to gather on the roadside.

He also complained about the Supt Adnan's attitude when he tried to discuss the situation with the police officer.

"Adnan did not want to hear our say at all or to compromise," Arutchelvan said.

"Although we told him that we had informed the camp commandant and showed him our letter, he said that he would only allow three delegates to go (and submit the memorandum) while the rest have to disperse."

Arutchelvan said the organisers of the protest had tried their best to convince Adnan that they would gather peacefully and there was no reason for the police to resort to the use of force to disperse them.

He claimed that the Federal Reserve Unit bell rang suddenly and the riot police charged at the people who were already preparing to leave. He added that some of the organisers who were in the midst of telling others to disperse, were also arrested by the police.

Bad intention

AIM committee member Zahir Hassan also overheard the police mentioning the names of a few people that they wanted to arrest, he said.

"During that time (when the FRU started charging at the people), Ghani - who was asking others to leave - were detained by the police. When asked by Zahir why Ghani was detained, the police told Zahir to keep quiet and said their operation has not ended," he said.

"Later, Zahir overheard the police uttering the names of a few people they'd intended to arrest."

According to Arutchelvan, another arrested person, V Pannerselvam, heard Adnan scolding the other policemen who only arrested two persons, telling them that he wanted at least 10 people arrested.

Arutchelvan said after that, about 37 people who were sitting in a coffeeshop were also arrested. Some did not even know why they were arrested.

"Therefore, the claim that the police were arresting those who refused to disperse is false and baseless.

"Thus, the arrests were made with bad intention and not valid," Arutchelvan stressed in the police report.

Arutchelvan requested that a neutral party look into the matter. He also wanted the investigation to be carried out by an officer of a higher rank than those lodged in the complaint.