The hearing of the RM83 million civil suit - filed by a group of prominent local human rights activists and journalists - for wrongful detention continued today with a witness for the plaintiffs recounting what had transpired after a Umno Youth-led mob stormed a controversial international conference.

Second witness Premesh Chandran (photo, right), 36, told the Kuala Lumpur High Court on the second day of the hearing that he identified the mob as the Barisan Bertindak Rakyat Malaysia, or Malaysia's People's Action Front, from the placards they were holding.

He told justice Wan Adnan Muhamad that the participants tried to stop the mob from invading the conference venue, which was at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

"We stacked up tables and chairs against the doors. We also physically held the doors to prevent the mob from entering the conference hall.

"The mob was banging the doors and finally one of the doors gave way after repeated banging by the mob...," he added.

"The mob went to the main conference table where the speakers were. They took over the microphones and started making speeches. They were also using their own loud-hailers," said Premesh, who was then a journalist at The Sun and now malaysiakini's chief executive officer.
"They abused us by saying amongst others 'keluar keluar pengkhianat negara' (traitors get out). The mob demanded the participants to leave and I thought they were provoking a fight," said Premesh, who was then an organising committee member of the conference.

Over 100 people, including 10 journalists, were arrested on Nov 9, 1996 - the opening day of the Second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (Apcet II), held to discuss human rights abuses in East Timor and the troubled territory's struggle for independence from Indonesia.

'Intention to arrest us'

Chandran said the Malaysian participants of Apcet II had linked arms and formed a protective circle around the foreign participants from the hostile crowd of about 200 to 300 people.

He added that it was about one hour later that the police came to restore order.

"We decided that the situation was becoming too tense and given the absence of the police and fearing for the safety of the participants, it was decided that we would leave."

Premesh said another organising committee member, R Sivarasa, eventually managed to negotiate with the leader of the mob to organise a safe passage out of the conference.

He explained that some of the participants then formed a human chain to pave a corridor for others to move out of the hall. However, as the participants were making their way out, the police arrived and everyone was sent back inside the hall.

Premesh said a conference organiser told the police, who were led by then Dang Wangi OCPD Zainal Abidin Ali - one of the respondents named in the suit - on what had transpired.

Zainal was said to have told the leader of the mob to leave the hall, a request rejected by some members of the mob.

Asked what action the police took on arriving at the scene, he replied: "The police did not appear to do anything but were just standing around. Sometime around 11am, the immigration officers arrived, they wanted to check everybody's identification and we gave our full cooperation."

Premesh said the police did not let any of the participants to leave the conference hall and he was escorted by the police when he had to go to the toilet.

The participants were kept in the hall for about four hours until Zainal ordered the participants to disperse after declaring that they were trying to "re-convened an illegal assembly".

The order was made when the participants attempted to hold a meeting to discuss their situation.

"Sivarasa asked that we were given two minutes to collect our belongings. Immediately, Zainal issued an order to arrest us.

He said there was little warning given by the police before the arrest.

"From the time OCPD Zainal first spoke to the time he issued the arrest order was only 20 to 30 seconds. It looked like his intention was to arrest us rather than to disperse us," Premesh, who was detained for two days, told the court.

Asthma attack in lock-up

Premesh said he was "very angry" over the arrest as the police did not give reasonable time to the participants to leave the hall and this was despite that the conference was not an unlawful assembly. He claimed the police had unlawfully detained the participants in the hall.

"Our peaceful conference was disrupted by the mob but no action was taken against them. The police did not have any legal basis to detain us. I think the police deliberately decided to stop the conference," he alleged.

He also recalled that the dust in the lock-up cell of Dang Wangi police station where he was held had triggered a severe bout of asthma attack and he was eventually sent to the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital after repeated requests for medical treatment.

During cross-examination, senior federal counsel Kamaludin Mohd Said questioned Premesh why the organisers of Apcet II decided to proceed with the conference despite the government's advice to cancel the event.

Premesh: The conference organisers had deliberated and felt that the issue of East Timor was very important to be discussed. Malaysia had got a good track record in talking about justice in Bosnia, so we should also discuss the issue of justice closer to home.

Kamaludin: So you are saying here the government's position on the conference was not important?

Premesh: We (the organising committee) disagreed with the government's views on the conference.

Kamaludin: So all of you didn't care about the government's position?

Premesh: Of course, we cared about the government's position. But we disagreed with it.

No sufficient warnings

At the beginning of today's hearing, Kamaludin continued the cross-examination of the first witness, Dr Sanusi Osman, where the senior federal counsel attempted to suggest that the police had gave three warnings for the participants to disperse prior the arrests.

However, Sanusi, who was the Apcet II spokesperson, disagreed with Kamaludin.

In re-examination by plaintiffs' lead counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Sanusi said none of the conference participants had indicated to the police that they were refusing to disperse when ordered to do so.

Kamaludin was assisted by federal counsel Zanariah Mutalib and Morhaji Selamat while Malik Imtiaz appeared with M Moganambal, Ang Hean Leng and Gregory Ling.

The 33 plaintiffs in the suit had named the government, then inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Mohd Noor and two senior police officers - then Kuala Lumpur chief police officer Ismail Che Rose and then Dang Wangi OCPD Zainal - as respondents in the multi-million ringgit suit.

Premesh's cross-examination by Kamaludin continues tomorrow.



Day 1: Witness: Umno Youth-led mob acted like 'samsengs'
Day 2: Mob called us traitors, says witness
Day 3: Syed Husin: I was assaulted
Sparks fly at Apcet II trial