Human rights organisations have denounced the statements made by two ministers yesterday, who had denied claims that Internal Security Act detainees were abused under custody.

Suaram and Hakam, in separate statements, strongly rebuked Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar and Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar over their remarks.

The organisations said that the abuse of detainees has been going on for decades in the country and gave incidences of ISA detainees who claimed to have been tortured.

"The ministers must be fooling themselves if they believe that all is well in the way the Malaysian detaining authorities treat detainees, and that the treatment conforms to international human rights standards," said Suaram coordinator Eric Paulsen.

He added that statistics released in Parliament in October 2003 by the Home Ministry backed up claims of abuse of detainees in Malaysia.

Then the parliament was told that 23 people died in the police lock-ups between 2002 and July 2003. During the same period, 425 prisoners died during their incarceration.

Paulsen also said that the ministers should also take note of the various memoranda and documentation of many ISA detainees for more details of abuse and torture suffered by them.

Stripped naked

Yesterday, the ministers refuted claims of abuse and torture suffered by 31 ISA detainees who have been detained for alleged terrorism activities.

The detainees have outlined some 59 forms of alleged abuses they faced in a memorandum which they submitted to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) on Jan 19.

These includes being forced to strip naked during interrogation, urinate in a bottle and drink spittle. The detainees also claimed that their interrogators had burnt their beards.

According to Noh, the detainees did not mention about such abuses when he visited them at the Kamunting Detention Centre last month.

Syed Hamid, meanwhile, rapped the media for likening the abuse and torture of these ISA detainees to that suffered by Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US troops in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

What is torture?

Hakam, in its statement, said that past knowledge of torture in the 70s, 80s and 90s of ISA detainees was sufficient to warrant an immediate investigation by an independent commission of inquiry.

"There are grave and systemic abuses of human rights in Malaysia. For the government to continue to deny these facts while attempting to seek credence in the international community is an embarrassment and an affront to justice," said Hakam secretary-general Elizabeth Wong.

She also said the government should bring all perpetrators of torture to book and to ratify without further delay the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Malaysia is not a signatory to this UN legislation, which was adopted in 1984, that governs the manner how prisoners should be treated.

The convention defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted" on a prisoner.

Chart: Incidences of torture in Malaysia


We were tortured under ISA, say former detainees

Torture under the ISA