Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) today condemned the Internal Security Act (ISA) arrests of seven reformasi activists as "unlawful" and called on the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to intervene.

The Malaysian Chinese Organisation Election Appeals Committee (Suqiu) said the government's detention of the seven is "unlawful" if Home Affairs Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had not ordered the arrests prior to the crackdown.

"In the case of Tian Chua and Saari Sungib, they were clearly told by police that they were arrested under the ISA. Later, Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai confirmed it," said Suqui in a press statement.

"If Abdullah had told the truth (that he did not approve the arrest), then the detention is indeed unlawful and his ministry should investigate who had ordered them," added Suqiu.

The crackdown began yesterday when police arrested Keadilan vice-president Tian Chua, film maker and malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais and Saari Sungib who is the organising chairperson for the gathering to hand over a human rights memorandum to Suhakam this Saturday.

At present, seven people are detained under the ISA, including Keadilan youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor and Free Anwar Campaign website executive director Raja Petra Kamaruddin.

Grave concern

Meanwhile, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) in its statement called on Suhakam to 'intervene and restore democracy and human rights' in this country and expressed their concern on the condition of the ISA detainees.

"We express our gravest concern over their well-being. All of them have been tortured by the police on other arrests since 1998, and Anwar emerged from an ISA arrest in December 1998 with his infamous black eye and other forms of physical torture," said the human rights group.

Suaram also called on all Malaysians to send in letters of protest against the abuse of the ISA to Suhakam chairperson Musa Hitam, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights officer Mary Robinson and IGP Norian Mai.

Abdullah responsible

It is learnt a 'People's Manifesto Initiative' comprising more than 10 activist groups such as Era Consumer, Bosses Group and Ex-ISA Detainees Group have sent an e-mail to Abdullah, complaining about the violation of human rights in Malaysia.

Spokesperson for the group, Irene Xavier said the e-mail stated that submitting petitions to Suhakam and government agencies are 'legitimate activities' and not a threat to national security.

"If .these arrests are related to Saturday's event, we are concerned about the government's aggressive actions to stop people from making representation to the commission. If the government views petitions to Suhakam with suspicion where else can complainants go?" it said further.

The group held Abdullah responsible for the use of the ISA and urged the government to abolish the Act and all other laws on preventive detention.