The situation of the 43 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees who have been on a mass hunger strike in the Kamunting Detention Camp since Monday is worsening, according to lawyers who visited the facility in Perak today.

Two detainees, Nik Adli - the son of Kelantan Menteri Besar and PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat - and Zainon Ismail collapsed last night and were taken to the camp clinic, said Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) secretary Yap Swee Seng.

Another detainee, Mohd Azian Abdul Rahman, collapsed during a two-hour meeting this afternoon with the detainees' lawyers and was taken to the camp clinic as well.

"The condition of the detainees is getting worse. All of them are weak and have lost weight by three to five kilogrammes," Yap said, citing information received from the legal team led by Ahmad Sabki Yusof.

The detainees told the lawyers that the Home Ministry had sent its principal assistant secretary Awang Din last night to persuade them to stop, but that the detainees reiterated their decision to continue their protest until they are freed, Yap said.

The detainees have also complained that the procedure of monitoring their health as implemented by the camp authorities is not thorough, and they have demanded that this be improved.

Yap said AIM is worried about the deteriorating health of the detainees and urged the camp to grant their families daily access to those involved.

On Monday night, two detainees who were warded in Taiping Hospital . One was discharged yesterday.

The strike was initiated by 16 detainees to protest their continued detention under the security law, but attracted a show of solidarity from 27 other detainees who joined the protest.

International concern

In a related development, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRC) expressed concern about the mass hunger strike and called on the Malaysian government to release the detainees if there was insufficient evidence to bring them to trial.

"The Malaysian government is responsible for the lives and well being of the detainee, and should allow independent organisations to monitor their condition," Asia Division deputy director Sam Zarifi said in a statement today.

"Foreign governments have been silent about Malaysia's misuse of the ISA to hold these people without proper judicial process. The international community needs to let the Malaysian government know that it will not accept the 'war on terror' as justification for locking people up for years without any evidence of wrongdoing."

In a separate statement, Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president Tian Chua said the government would have to bear the responsibility for the poor heath - or death - of the detainees, if it does not release them immediately.

Chua, a former ISA detainee himself, had been part of the group who also had gone on a hunger strike to call attention to their situation in 2002.