Last week the cabinet decided to send four ministers to visit the Simpang Renggam detention center and report to the cabinet of its conditions. The four are Works Minister S Samy Vellu, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Effendi Norwawi, Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn and Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek.
We believe the visit was in response to the recent alleged brutality by warders in the detention center where 16 detainees were severely injured and had to be sent to hospital for medical treatment.
While welcoming the visit of the ministers to the detention center and calling for the minister to make public their findings, Suaram is of the view that such visit will not be sufficient to address the root-causes of the notorious conditions in the Simpang Renggam, which holds more than 2,000 detainees without trial indefinitely under the Emergency Ordinance 1969 and the Dangerous drug Act (Special Preventive Measures) 1985.
The root-causes for the incident in the Simpang Renggam detention center is that its detainees are deprived of basic and protection such as the right to trial which is crucial in preventing abuses of detainees and trampling of their basic rights. The indefinite detention without trial put these detainees at the complete mercy of the prison authority where abuses could take place with total impunity.
Even if the ministers found that the conditions in the Simpang Renggam detention center are deplorable and suggest improvement in the conditions of the detention center, the improvement would be mere cosmetic change without addressing the fundamental problem of the right to redress of the detainees.
Therefore, we call on the four ministers to suggest to the cabinet to abolish detention without trial and close down the notorious Simpang Renggam detention center in order to end once and for all the abuses taken place at the expedient of indefinite detention without trial. All detainees in the detention center should be charged in court or released.
END
For inquiry, please contact E. Nalini. at tel: +60 3 77843525 or email: suaram[at]suaram.net
0 Responses to “END DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL, CLOSE DOWN SIMPANG RENGGAM DETENTION CENTER”