Hindraf condemns police for roughing up settlers

NGO wants the IGP to reprimand the police officers who acted on behalf of Thamrai Holdings who have expressed an interest in the land.

SEREMBAN: Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, coming to the defence of several settlers on GATCO Plantation, would like the police to explain whether they were acting as “hired hands” for a holding company which claimed interest in the land.

“This is not a criminal case,” said Hindraf Chairman P Waythamoorthy. “The case is a civil matter pending in Court.”

He wanted to know the basis on which police picked up 23 GATCO settlers and three state representatives. He believed that it was at the behest of Thamrai Holdings Sdn Bhd which is involved in a court case with those picked up by the police.

Hindraf urged the Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abdul Bakar, to intervene immediately and reprimand the police officers who had “in fact used brutal force on the settlers which had resulted in injuries including to some elderly women”.

Further, it urged the IGP to warn his colleagues in the Negeri Sembilan police force not to act in a harsh manner on behalf of commercial companies to threaten poor and defenceless people such as the GATCO settlers.

“The police force appears to be working on the instructions of Thamarai by imposing criminal intimidation against the settlers,” said Waytha.

The fact is that the GATCO settlers had won the Court of Appeal case against Thamarai Holding Sdn Bhd and the Liquidators on 24 February 2015, he added.

“This is the second time the police have done such a thing. The first time was in July 2013. The people picked up were released after we queried the validity of the arrests on a matter pending in Court.”

He pointed out that the involvement of the police force in a civil matter, by way of threatening to charge those poor settlers for criminal trespass while the case is still pending a final decision, “appears to be clear intimidation on behalf of the land owner”.

“It also appears the police force, which is on the government payroll for the benefit of the public, are more interested in exercising their brute force on innocent poor settlers such as the GATCO community on behalf of private companies as in this case,” reiterated Waytha.

“The intimidation by the police force has created anxiety amongst over 300 active working settlers whose livelihood is dependent on tapping their rubber trees and their ability to sell the latex and rubber sheets.”

The GATCO plantation issue has been going on since 1983. It involves over 400 settlers who had initially cleared the jungle for rubber plantation activities. The case has been remitted to the High Court to be tried by a different judge.

The Court of Appeal found that there had been errors in the earlier judgment of the High Court judge as it was without consideration on the totality of the circumstances wherein the element of equitable fraud appears to be administered against the current 140 settlers in the GATCO case.