http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/nov/11/yehey/world/20071111wor1.html
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Malaysian police disperse protesters
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police unleashed tear gas and water cannons on
protesters Saturday as tens of thousands defied a government ban and rallied in
the capital to call for fair and clean elections.
Some 30,000 demonstrators massed outside Malaysia's royal palace, led by
opposition leaders including dissident former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, as
they faced off against hundreds of riot police.
Earlier at a downtown mosque that served as one of the meeting points for
the rally, tear gas and water cannons were used to disperse a large crowd,
police and demonstrators said.
"Police detained several people and there was use of water cannons and
tear gas," a senior police officer told AFP.
Syed Hussein Ali, vice-president of Anwar's party Keadilan, said he was
caught up in the chaos outside the Jamek Mosque.
"I was hit two times by tear gas and water cannons. The police were
clearly trying to stop the crowd and it was very difficult for us to carry on
with the march, but we did," he told AFP.
The demonstrators, an alliance of opposition parties and civil society
groups, regrouped and marched to the palace in the driving rain, chanting
"Election Reform" and "Justice".
Protest organizers said three people were arrested there.
Some 400 police in riot gear were deployed at the palace, including
dozens armed with automatic weapons and several with tear gas launchers. Two
water cannons were set up behind police lines.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had vowed to suppress the
demonstration, and police attempted to close down the center of Kuala Lumpur
with a heavy security presence and roadblocks that caused traffic snarls.
"The Malaysian public must be allowed to express their opinions and
views," parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said at the palace gates
before delivering a petition to the king.
"It is not fair for the government not to issue a permit for this rally
to take place as it is only the voice of the people being expressed here," he
said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernment
organization, slammed the government's stance on the mass rally and urged it to
support free speech as the nation heads towards elections expected to be called
early next year.
"If Malaysia wants to count itself a democracy, it can begin by upholding
constitutional guarantees of free speech and assembly. The way the system works
now, only the ruling coalition can get its messages out," it said.
Anwar, who was heir apparent to former premier Mahathir Mohamad until
1998 when he was sacked and jailed for sodomy and corruption, was only allowed
to make brief remarks at the rally.
He yelled out his slogan of "Reformasi" or "Reform" and thanked the crowd
for coming.
"We want free and fair elections and clearly Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi and his cabinet are complicit to the crime of cheating Malaysians from
having free and fair elections," he told reporters later.
Anwar's sodomy conviction has been overturned, but the corruption verdict
stands, barring him from standing for public office until April 2008.
Protests are rare in Malaysia, and the last major rallies were seen in
1998 during the "Reformasi" movement that erupted after Anwar's sacking.
--AFP
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