Noh rapped for claiming ignorance

The Malay Mail, Kuala Lumpur
20 December 2005

Noh rapped for claiming ignorance

RIZALMAN HAMMIM

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 Seputeh MP Teresa Kok voiced doubts over Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar's statement that he did not know the identity of the woman inthe video clip being forced to strip and squat.

"Since the police arranged for the woman in the clip to give her testimonyto the independent inquiry, they must have known her identity. So, why wasn't the identity of the woman included in the report to Parliament and why didn't Noh know about it?" asked Kok at a Press conference yesterday.

On Sunday, Noh said he never knew the identity or nationality of the woman in the clip, even when the matter was debated in Parliament.

He also said that nothing was said about the identity of the women in the report that he was to table in Parliament as the police were still investigating the case. Kok also took to task the police for delaying the investigation of the matter.

"The police said they knew about the clip since the end of June. Why didn'tthe police act on the matter until I showed the clip in Parliament? What would have happened if the clip was not exposed?" asked Kok.

A group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and political parties have called on the police to halt the practice of 'strip-and-squat' on detainees."The practice is in violation of human rights and should be stopped."

The police should protect the dignity of the detainees irrespective oftheir race or nationality," said Kok. Among the NGOs and political parties that made the call are the DAP, PartiKeadilan Nasional, Parti Islam SeMalaysia, Jamaah Islah Malaysia, the Women's Development Collective (WDC), All Women's Action Society (Awam) and the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Their representatives were present at the Press conference yesterday.

Awam also called on the authorities to come up with a guideline on bodysearch by the police."We understand that body search needs to be done in certain cases but aslong as there is no guideline on the matter, abuses will continue," said Awam's media co-ordinator Yasmin Masidi.