An opposition political party today accused the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) today of "evading" the issue of the Petaling Jaya Selatan racial clashes, which resulted in the death of half a dozen people.

"It is nine months today and Suhakam should be ashamed of itself for not holding an open inquiry but instead beating around the bush," Prim's pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said in a statement today.

Human rights commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan told malaysiakini on Nov 30 that the commission had in fact sent investigation officers into the Kampung Medan area since the beginning of the clashes in early March.

The commissioner also clarified that Suhakam was conducting an investigation, and not an open inquiry where witnesses will be asked to testify before the commission.

Uthayakumar said, "This is news to us as this has never been communicated to us in all our meetings with Suhakam and neither have they notified us of the same be it verbally or in writing."

He called on the human rights body to provide the names of the investigating officers sent.

Legal action

"We challenge Suhakam to make public the names of the officers and the dates of their visit and the people they met in Kampung Medan. Otherwise we shall deem that it is not a true."

Prim has repeatedly accused Suhakam of not fulfilling its mandate and threatened legal action to compel the human rights body into initiating an inquiry on the tragedy.

On March 8, several areas in Petaling Jaya Selatan were rocked by racial clashes which lasted several days. The incident left six people dead and 52 injured.