‘Stop the slaying, set up IPCMC’

Suaram says it is not shocked to find out that almost 300 people have been killed by the police since 2007. It calls on the government to put a stop to such fatal shootings.

PETALING JAYA: Suaram has urged the government to put an end to “senseless shooting sprees” by the police, urging Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to do what his predecessor failed to do – setting up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

The human rights NGO was responding to a FMT article yesterday which quoted a parliamentary answer by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein which said that 298 have been killed by the police since 2007.

“Suaram was not shocked to see the figures as the numbers clearly reflect the common unofficial Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the force in Malaysia which is to ‘shoot to kill’,” said Suaram’s Right to Justice coordinator R Thevarajan in a statement.

“The question is, was there anyone accountable for these atrocities done by the police force in this country?” he asked.

Thevarajan noted that while some policemen were charged, many others were not.

He questioned how the police arrived at their conclusions that a person was already a criminal before being proven guilty by a court of law.

“If all the accusations and judgments towards a suspect can be done by the Royal Police of Malaysia, why do we need the courts?” he asked.

He claimed that Suaram’s studies showed that police had been too quick in establishing the victims as criminals. And often, police claimed to be acting in self-defence, with the victims attacking the police using a parang.

Failed reforms

The victims were also commonly linked to gangsterism and their deaths were justified by showing that they had criminal records.

Thevarajan cited the killing of 15-year-old Aminulrasyih Amzah in Shah Alam April 2010; the fatal shooting of Mohd Shaml Hafiz Shafie and Mohd Khairul Nizam Tuah in Glenmarie in November 2011; and 26-year-old D Dinesh who was gunned down in Ampang in August this year.

He said that unless every death was investigated automatically without the pressure from the public, to prove transparency and credibility of the force, more would be killed by the police.

He said that it was insufficient for police to investigate their own.

“This mechanism is the mirror of failed reforms as can be seen from past records, coupled with the lackadaisical approach of the police on the safety of individuals,” he added.

Thevarajan also said that the police’s attitude seemed to contravene Article 3 of the Federal Constitution, which talked about the right to life.

“Furthermore, Malaysia as a member of the United Nations disrespects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) under Article 3, which says ‘Everyone has the right to life, to be free and to feel safe’,” he noted.

He said that the saddest part was for the family of victims having to “run up and down to seek justice”.

“Why do the family members of the victims have to run up and down pressuring the government to take action against the police? How many memorandums the family has to submit to the authorities before any meaningful actions are taken?” he asked.