Apcet II: Two more cops testify

Two more defence witnesses were called in to testify today in the hearing of the civil suit against the government for the detention of 100 participants at the Second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (Apcet II) 13 years ago.

The two witnesses, K Manoharan and Kamaruzaman Endut, are both police officers formerly stationed at the Dang Wangi police headquarters and were involved with the arrests.

Former Dang Wangi OCPD, Zainal Abidin Ali, 64, who had already taken the stand yesterday was also called in again for cross examination.

During the cross examination, lawyers representing the plaintiffs mostly quizzed the two new witnesses on the arrests.

Yesterday, Zainal during the cross examination said the arrests of the participants at the conference was as a result of them ignoring his three warnings to disperse.

Zainal said after giving three warnings, there were no signs of anyone leaving the hotel's hall and hence he ordered chief inspector Tengku Hamzah Tengku Abdullah to conduct the arrests.

Manoharan, the first to take the stand today, was asked if he had actually heard that Zainal had given the three warnings to disperse.

Replying to the question, Manoharan said Zainal did give the three warnings and further said that the warnings were not heeded by the participants.

Instruction given to arrest participants

“Yes, (Zainal did give the three warnings but) they did not heed them. During the time when the warnings were given, all the participants were still sitting and did not indicate that they were going to budge,” he said.

When asked what had happened after that, Manoharan said: “Tengku Hamzah was given the instruction by the OCPD to arrest them after they showed no indication to disperse.”

Manoharan’s statement was also backed by Kamaruzaman when during the cross examination he had said he also heard Zainal giving three warnings.

However in yesterday’s cross examination on Zainal, plaintiff counsel Ranjit Singh had suggested that he did not give three warnings to the participants to disperse as stated in his witness statement.

This went contrary to the police report that Zainal filed following the arrests where he stated that he issued one warning, and following that the arrests were made.

Zainal who also took the stand again today was asked if there was a joint effort by the Immigration Department, which also took part in the raid at the hotel with the police.

Foreign participants deported

The former Dang Wangi OCPD denied that there was such a joint effort and said that he was not aware that the Immigration Department would be raiding the event as well.

“No, there was no such thing. I was not aware that the Immigration Department was going to come to the event nor was I aware of the reasons they were there,” he said.

Over 100 people - including 10 journalists - were arrested on the opening day of Apcet II, which was held to discuss human rights abuses in East Timor and its struggle for independence from Indonesia. (see chart below)

As the conference was about to begin, 400 members from the Umno Youth-led Malaysia’s People’s Action Front, broke down the doors of the conference hall, threw chairs and verbally and physically abused the participants.

Police then moved in to arrest the participants, claiming they had refused to disperse. The participants were detained between one and six days, while 40 foreign participants were deported.

Star witness Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who was then Umno Youth secretary, had earlier testified that the mob was acting on the instructions of then Deputy Home Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob to stop the conference.

SPECIAL REPORT: Apcet II trial