Suaram expresses its regrets that the four ministers’ visit to the Simpang Renggam detention center has failed to probe into the alleged abuses of the inmates recently by the warders that led to at least 16 inmates sent to hospital due to serious injuries.
Instead, Work Minister Samy Vellu was reportedly to have said that the conditions at Simpang Renggam detention centre is ‘fine’ when they themselves revealed the appalling truth that 4,000 inmates are held in extremely overcrowded conditions in a detention center that can only house 2,500 inmates. The minister’s statement is clearly an attempt to white wash the rampant abuses that took place in the Simpang Renggam detention center. It once again points to show that an investigative mechanism on the prison conditions that are free and independent from the government is urgently needed.
While welcoming the promises by the cabinet to overcome overcrowding and water woes problems in Simpang Renggam which have caused widespread skin diseases among the inmates, it will not address and resolve the larger issue of injustice that is perpetuated by the indefinite detention of the inmates without trial under the Emergency Ordinance and the Dangerous Drugs Act.
The detainees in Simpang Renggam are deprived of their basic human right to an open and fair trial. The indefinite detention without trial is not only a cruel punishment for the detainees who have no idea at all when they will be released, it is also contributing to the growing numbers of detainees in the Simpang Renggam detention center that eventually led to the overcrowding conditions.
The overcrowding situation in the detention center is exacerbated by the contempt of court by police in re-arresting the EO detainees who have won their habeas corpus application in courts. In May 2005, the police announced that 48 of 56 EO detainees who had been released by court in the first five months of 2005 had been re-arrested. Last year on 28 of June, eight EO who have been released by the court were re-arrested by police immediately after they stepped out of the detention center.
Suaram reiterates that indefinite detention without trial is precisely the breeding ground for rampant human rights abuses that took place in the Simpang Renggam detention center, where the detainees are at the total mercy of the prison authorities. In order to address the problems in the detention center, detention without trial must be abolished immediately to accord the right to trial and to seek redress in court to the detainees.
We strongly support the National Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) to proceed with the public inquiry into the alleged incident on 3rd of January of the abuses by warders that resulted in 16 inmates suffered from serious injuries.
The cabinet delegation, headed by Work Minister Datuk Seri Samy Vellu, accompanied by two Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah kiow and Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, Internal Security Ministry’s Secretary General Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof and the Prison Department director-general Datuk Mustafa Osman, visited the Simpang Renggam detention center on 6th of February.
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