BERSIH 3.0: Seeking victims of police brutality

BERSIH is asking victims of police brutality to contact them with evidences. You can contact them via
hotline at 012-3496013,
SUARAM at 03 77843525 or
info@bersih.org
428victims@gmail.com

Innocent Malay woman shot by police

Alerted by email to this innocent Malay lady who was shot by police for no apparent reason below. Brief transcript below if you have no time to listen to the video. Was asked to spread the story widely so let your friends and relatives know about this:

Transcript

After being shot 5 times by the police, Norizan was dragged this lady out and down to the ground and then kicked her with booted feet and broked her ribs.

Norizan Salleh is an innocent woman, was travelling in a car, has not been charged for any offence. Never had trouble with the law before, and for no reason whatsoever, the police fired at her car and almost killed the lady. One bullet was lodged right next to the heart.

Surendran's shock and disappointment is this. Despite such clear evidence of wrong doing on the part of the police, the Minister Hishammuddin has said that the police acted properly and no action will be taken against the police.

International standards are very clear. Police can only shoot if there is actual danger to the lives of the police themselves. These people are unarmed people travelling in a car. So what is the justification of the police in shooting her?

There has also been a false story spread by the police that the police had to shoot at the car in self defence because the car that Norizan was travelling in had tried to ram the police.

This is a lie, and Surendran will prove why it is a lie. The bullet that entered the car entered from behind. So if they were trying to ram the police car, how can the bullet come in from behind?

Norizan explained further in Bahasa Malaysia including explaining that there were not even a road block.

BERSIH 3.0: Police brutality accounts by victims

The police during the BERSIH 3.0 rally for free and fair elections assulted some protesters in groups, probably to try to intimidate future participants from further participating.

Some of the victims of police brutality related their ordeal to Bersih at a press conference organised a day after the protest.

Many of the protesters claimed the police carried no name tags or identification numbers on their uniforms when they launched their attacks at about 6pm. The assault lasted for three hours.

These are not wild allegations; pictures of the injuries suffered by the protesters as a result of being beaten by the police are proof that the federal government had no intention of allowing the rakyat to exercise their fundamental right to assemble and voice out their unhappiness.

A protester, Adrian Low, 38, said he was repeatedly stomped on his back even after he was detained. His back still carries the footprints of the police boots.
Another protester, Nurul Amani Faizal, 28, said that 10 male police officers charged at her and beat her.
“They had just fired a tear gas at Masjid Jamek so my friends and I ran in the opposite direction. I wasn’t wearing the Bersih T-shirt but I was a rally participant. They caught hold of me and beat me.

“Then one officer slapped me and asked a female officer to arrest me,” she said, adding that she sustained injuries in her lower back.
Yet another protester, Mohamad Fazwan Yusoff, 23, sustained bruises to his face and left eye. He was about to leave Masjid Jamek when the police dragged him and assaulted him.
“My friends and I saw the police step on a lady so we went to help her. Suddenly, a group of policemen appeared and attacked us too.
“I don’t remember how many charged at me but I was beaten for several minutes and they didn’t stop even in the police truck.
“They just continued their assault,” he said.

Never-ending police brutality
Bersih steering committee member, Wong Chin Huat, who was also arrested, has said it is not unusual for the police to continue their insults and assaults even after the protesters were detained.
“They only stopped beating me when I fell to the ground; even then, they continued to shout racial insults in the trucks,” he had said.
Wong revealed that Bersih were told of policemen who were dressed in yellow Bersih T-shirts while videographing the detainees in the police trucks and detention centres.

Hishammuddin freudulent slip: Police consification of press cameras SOP

Hishammuddin Hussein, Malaysia Home Minister, probably made a Freudulent slip of tongue revealing he had issued an order for police to confisicate journalists' cameras and memories.

He was reported as saying the confisication of the press cameras was police "Standard Operating Procedure", revealing his silly infantile brain for it does not need an intelligent person to know that if true, it would reflect very badly on the police.

It was thus left to the IGP (Inspector General of Police) Ismail Omar to say that the police do not have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) allowing them to seize media equipment including cameras or memory cards.

What a dumb ass.

BERSIH 3.0: Police punished demonstrators?

The police who let loose tear gas cannisters near Masjid Jamek, were they trying to disperse the crowd or were they punishing the protesters?

If what Chua Jui Meng, former Health Minister and current PKR Vice-President said is true, it sounds more likely that the police were tear gassing the crowd not to disperse them but to punish them, and this seemed to be buttressed by what happened elsewhere.

According to Chua Jui Meng, he was trapped inside Masjid Jamek when he together with others which include many senior citizens sought refuge there. Chua said he negotiated with a police officer holding the rank of assistant commissioner, wearing a name tag saying ‘Jamal' to allow them a free and safe passage out of the area and 'Jamal' agreed.

However, as they were leaving the mosque, the police fired tear gas and water cannon at them. Not only that. Chua said that the tear gas was stronger and more stinging than those used at BERSIH 2.0

"I too suffered difficulty in breathing and was choking. I thought I was going to die there as I felt a strong burning sensation in my lungs.

"There were many, many people at Bersih 3.0 and I could not run anywhere. I see that the government is taking punitive measures to punish the rakyat by using such devices," Chua said.

Source: Police broke word by firing tear gas near Masjid Jamek

BERSIH 3.0: Further confirmation violence was planned

After extensive readings, I had already made up my mind that the authorities had planned and provoke the violence that marred BERSIH 3.0 rally. Here is one more evidence that it was so:

Calling out to all who were at the Bar Council yesterday.

Apparently some unidentified person or persons had removed the razor-sharp "barbed" wires of the barrier between the police and the protestors between the Bar Council building and Loke Yew building.

Tell me, for what other reasons that those intimidating barrier was removed if not to encourage the protestors to barge forward and thus be blamed for causing the violence?

Here is a screen shot of a video clearly showing a police officer hit a protester who is already lying on the ground and helpless:

The incriminating segment is at 0:06 second of the video clip below. After watching the video again, it was so obviously clear that the police were very brutal, hitting and kicking the poor victim again and again and surrounding him, beating him mercilessly:

Malaysia turnaround for the better?

I have never heard, read or seen any police ever admitting some facts favorable to the opposition, but today is the very first time I read that confirms Officer’s death unrelated to Bersih, police confirm.

I have even witnessed a Selangor Police Chief lied that the police did not charged at participants of a candlelight vigil on the anniversary the first BERSIH rally for free and fair election. I was at the rally and managed to video record the vigilers singing Negaraku and the police charging at the participants.

After violence erupted in the BERSIH 3.0 rally, there were rumours that police spread the false news that a policeman had died result of the rally to provoke the police into violence. The fact that the a senior police had admitted such and this lead me to believe that Malaysia may have turned the corner and starting to head to better times.

BERSIH 3.0: Victims of police brutalities accounts & injuries

Just listen and see the injuries suffered by victims of police brutality during the BERSIH 3.0 rally in the video below:



After extensive readings and now strengthened by the victims accounts, there is no doubt in my mind that the violence that marred the rally is the result of deliberate provocations of the participants to create fear and probably to deter future rallies.

BERSIH 3.0: Police plotted and provoked violence?

Sounds likely from readings of what happened before, during and after the breaching the razor-bladed wires and barriers surrounding Dataran Merdaka that authorities provoked the violence that marred the BERSIH 3.0 as confirmed by members of the International Fact Finding Mission.

(Sorry, looks like there could be some mix-up because I left an earlier post unpublished but listen to the video of the press conference below and my attempt to put in print some of what I could catch from listening to the video:



According to some reports, inexplicably, a section of the barrier was left with no "barbed" wires plus just before the breach, the row of police just behind the barrier started to move back as if to encourage the protesters to breach the barriers.

Key recommendations and grave concerns
Media access for opposition politicians
Importance of verification of voters
Minimum election campaign
Ensure one vote one value (regarding fair approportionment)

Members:
Mohamad Nasir Tamara Tamimi (Indonesia)
Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo (Pakistan)
Clinton Fernandes (Australia)
Mobashar Jawed Akbar (India)

Crucial basis of democracy
Freedom from fear
Freedom of peaceful association

Malaysia does not deserve democracy
Slander should not be permitted as part of electoral rect....
No party should be allowed to excite community hatred
Oldest tactic: provoke the victim in order to blame the victim

urge Australia to play a leading role as part of the Commenwealth to ensure free and fair election

It was a peaceful demonstration and a case of the victims being victimized
Running away from tear gas cannisters only to be met by more canisters
Media completely biased and unfair

In other countries, buses were provided to gather the people to make success of the rally
Election Commission looked so backward

UMNO Secretart General Tengku Adnan opined that Malaysians are not ready for democracy.

Can you believe this? Hishamuddin said seizure of journalists cameras standard operating procedure?

I had always thought that Home Minister Kerismuddin is not smart, especially when he was caught on camera in a press conference with the cow head protesters saying silly things trying to justify the rowdiness and the stepping on the cow head by those protesters.

However, this take the prize. This silly Kerismuddin admitted the seizure of journalists (and manhandling) is police standard operating procedure? How can a lawyer and Home Minister admit that and put the police in scorn?

BERSIH 3.0: Police attack journalists recording brutality against protesters

A female reporter, Merdeka Review reporter Chen Shaua Fui, was manhandled by four male police personnel at about 7.30pm, when she tried to photograph police personnel beating up protesters who were eating at a restaurant.

“Police dragged out two people who were eating, arrested them and beat them up. I wanted to take a photo but was warned by police not to, so I didn’t.

“Then they went to another restaurant where two others were having their meal. The police asked them to take off their shirts, arrested and beat them. I wanted to take photos and that’s when they grabbed me,”

An Al Jazeera videoman was also ‘punched’

Al Jazeera reporter Harry Fawcett said that he was “manhandled” by several uniformed police personnel when he had tried to capture what looked like police assaulting protesters.

He told Malaysiakini that a group of 10 to 15 police personnel surrounded him and Al Jazeera videographer Ray Jones at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

“We saw two or three police officers hold a guy while another was kneeing him either in the face or in the chest, it wasn’t clear.

“When we went to record it, I found that we were surrounded by police who were extremely aggressive. They held my arm and gripped my shirt. When I turned around, the camera was on the ground,” he said when contacted.

He said Jones told him that he was “punched at the back of the head” by police personnel and the camera was “smashed” to the ground.

“The camera was wrenched from him and our wireless microphone and battery pack was taken. The camera was smashed to the ground, and we coudn’t take the tape out. It was inoperable,” he said.

Minutes before the incident, Fawcett and Jones were also stopped from recording another incident where police allegedly assaulted protesters, and were also stopped by police.

“A group of protesters tried to enter Dataran Merdeka... two or three police officers would hold one guy while another punched his body. We were about 100 metres away from the scene,” he said.

Others hurt during the rally were Malay Mail photographer Arif Kartono, reportedly assaulted by several uniformed police personnel and Al-Hijrah videographer Mohd Azri Mohd Salleh, reportedly assaulted by protesters.

At least two media personnel, including Malaysiakini's photojournalist Koh Jun Lin, were also arrested in what appears to be an unprecedented heavy-handedness on journalists by the authorities.

Do you have photographs or video clips depicting police brutality during Bersih 3.0? Contact photo@malaysiakini.com and let Malaysiakini help you share them with Malaysiakini readers.

Source: Female reporter 'grabbed' by four male cops at rally

BERSIH 3.0: Mobashar Jawad Akhbar said violence provoked by police?

Mobashar Jawad Akhbar, a prominent Indian journalist and editorial director of India Today said that the violence in the BERSIH 3.0 rally for free and fair elections could be provoked by the police to create situations and images that will play well in the official media in order to blame them. According to Mobashar, this was a common old trick.

He said: "The crowd has been building overnight, they have ample time to be violent if they wanted to. It was very peaceful until the very end. I do believe that the provocation was perhaps done in order to create images that will play well in the official media,”

He said that this provoking the victims in order to blame them later, was “one of the oldest tricks” employed by various authorities and noted that the crucial essence of democracy is the freedom from fear, which he said is “non-negotiable”.

“Democracy does not function when ppl do not have right to assembly,” he said, praising the protestors for rising above fear.

BERSIH 3: What & Who caused the violence?

Today, as was expected, Malaysia's synchophantic printed newspapers ignoring the positive aspects of BERSIH 3.0 and highlighted some violence especially an overturned police patrol car featured on its front page. What caused this, a damaged and overturned police car:

It was this, the police patrol car recklessly speeding along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, losing control and crashing into the demonstrators causing injuries. Below is a photo of the patrol car as it dived into the protestors walking along the sidewalk:

Below is the video which caught the patrol car speeding:



Here is the video of the injured protestor being placed on an improvised stretcher and being ferried away by an ambulance:

Today, as was expected, Malaysia's synchophantic printed newspapers ignoring the positive aspects of BERSIH 3.0 and highlighted some violence including an overturned police patrol car. What caused this, a damaged and overturned police car:

It was this, the police patrol car recklessly speeding along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, losing control and crashing into the demonstrators causing injuries. Below is a photo of the patrol car as it dived into the protestors walking along the sidewalk:

Below is the video which caught the patrol car speeding:

BERSIH 3.0: Police attack journalists

Did the Malaysian police coordinated an attack against journalists, local and foreign, to prevent journalists from recording police aggression, violence and assaults on participants of BERSIH 3.0 rally to be recorded and publicized?

According to Surendren of PKR, that was the case as reported in Malaysian Insider, PKR: Najib to blame for attacks on media at Bersih.

This was collaborated by Alzajeera's journalists and crew whose camera was busted by the police and Aljazeera's Harry Fawcett had to report using the Skype for iPad application.

Malaysiakini journalist Koh Jun Lin was also arrested along with several other members of the press while covering the rally at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. Koh's memory card containg photographs of the rally were confiscated, while another photographer said police destroyed his memory card after he refused to delete photographs of a melee.

Listen to his first-hand account of "police violence" in the video below:

Press pixmen nabbed over assault pictures

Press pixmen nabbed over assault pictures

6:40PM Apr 28, 2012

Several newspaper photographers have been arrested while photographing scenes of alleged police brutality.
It is unclear how many photographers are arrested. Among them isMalaysiakini photojournalist Koh Jun Lin.
“My camera and memory card have been confiscated,” Koh said.

"They said they wanted it as evidence."

The police were engaged in about three hours of cat-and-mouse with pockets of protesters after Bersih 3.0 organisers urged participants to disperse at 3pm.
Violence involving both the police and protesters escalated as the minutes went.
One photographer told Malaysiakini that after he refused to delete photographs of a melee, a police personnel removed his memory card and destroyed it.
It was confirmed by Guang Ming Daily that one of their photographers was arrested while taking photographs of the process of an arrest and alleged police assault

KL police: Bersih 3.0 can gather but not march

KL police: Bersih 3.0 can gather but not march

S Pathmawathy
4:13PM Apr 27, 2012

Supporters of Bersih 3.0 are permitted to gather at the meeting points but are prohibited from marching to Dataran Merdeka as provided for by the recently enforced Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA), said Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh.
He said any group moving to Dataran Merdeka to join the banned sit-in tomorrow will face police action, and possible arrest.
The police obtained a court order last night barring the coalition for clean and fair elections from sitting-in at Dataran Merdeka tomorrow.
Mohmad said supporters and organisers are prohibited from marching from the meeting points to anywhere too close to streets bordering the venue.

"Seeing that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) rejected Bersih's application and the police received intelligence and information that the organisers are adamant on going ahead, considering issues of safety and peace we had applied for a court order under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code," said Mohmad at the police contingent headquarters.

The order bars all activities at Dataran Merdeka from tomorrow till  May 1, he  said, adding that any violation of the order carries a maximum jail term of six month or RM2,000 fine or both under Section 188 of the Penal Code.
The organisers had identified six gathering locations - Masjid Negara, Jalan Sultan, Jalan Masjid India, Central Market, Brickfields fountain, Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC).
Participants of environmental coalition, Himpuanan Hijau, plan to  make their way from KLCC to Dataran Merdeka to join forces with Bersih.

Asked if there will be road closure or road blocks leading to the gathering points, that, Mohmad told reporters, would depend on tomorrow’s situation.
No restrictions have been place on t-shirts and other paraphernalia related to Bersih or Himpunan Hijau, he said, unlike the July 9 rally last year when yellow coloured Bersih related materials were outlawed.
At a simultaneous press conference at another location, Bersih chief Ambiga Sreenevasan said that they will adhere to the court order but will try to get as close as possible to the iconic field.

The security move against the coalition, however, contradicts Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's assurance that the rally is not a secuirty threat.

DBKL, under orders from Mayor Ahmad Fuad Ismail, said in a statement that the restriction will be enforced according to the  Local Government (Dataran Merdeka) (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) By-Laws 1992 and section 65 of the Local Government Act 1976 until Sunday 6am.

City hall has since barricaded the historic square and both DBKL and the government have repeatedly urged Bersih to change the venue of the sit-in to other venues including Stadium Merdeka which was ironically off limits to the tens of thousands during last year’s July 9 rally.

KL police: Bersih 3.0 can gather but not march

KL police: Bersih 3.0 can gather but not march

S Pathmawathy
4:13PM Apr 27, 2012

Supporters of Bersih 3.0 are permitted to gather at the meeting points but are prohibited from marching to Dataran Merdeka as provided for by the recently enforced Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA), said Kuala Lumpur police chief Mohmad Salleh.
He said any group moving to Dataran Merdeka to join the banned sit-in tomorrow will face police action, and possible arrest.
The police obtained a court order last night barring the coalition for clean and fair elections from sitting-in at Dataran Merdeka tomorrow.
Mohmad said supporters and organisers are prohibited from marching from the meeting points to anywhere too close to streets bordering the venue.

"Seeing that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) rejected Bersih's application and the police received intelligence and information that the organisers are adamant on going ahead, considering issues of safety and peace we had applied for a court order under Section 98 of the Criminal Procedure Code," said Mohmad at the police contingent headquarters.

The order bars all activities at Dataran Merdeka from tomorrow till  May 1, he  said, adding that any violation of the order carries a maximum jail term of six month or RM2,000 fine or both under Section 188 of the Penal Code.
The organisers had identified six gathering locations - Masjid Negara, Jalan Sultan, Jalan Masjid India, Central Market, Brickfields fountain, Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC).
Participants of environmental coalition, Himpuanan Hijau, plan to  make their way from KLCC to Dataran Merdeka to join forces with Bersih.

Asked if there will be road closure or road blocks leading to the gathering points, that, Mohmad told reporters, would depend on tomorrow’s situation.
No restrictions have been place on t-shirts and other paraphernalia related to Bersih or Himpunan Hijau, he said, unlike the July 9 rally last year when yellow coloured Bersih related materials were outlawed.
At a simultaneous press conference at another location, Bersih chief Ambiga Sreenevasan said that they will adhere to the court order but will try to get as close as possible to the iconic field.

The security move against the coalition, however, contradicts Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's assurance that the rally is not a secuirty threat.

DBKL, under orders from Mayor Ahmad Fuad Ismail, said in a statement that the restriction will be enforced according to the  Local Government (Dataran Merdeka) (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) By-Laws 1992 and section 65 of the Local Government Act 1976 until Sunday 6am.

City hall has since barricaded the historic square and both DBKL and the government have repeatedly urged Bersih to change the venue of the sit-in to other venues including Stadium Merdeka which was ironically off limits to the tens of thousands during last year’s July 9 rally.

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Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011 mala fide

Definition of mala fide:Adjective: In bad faith; with intent to deceive.

The PA Bill (Peaceful Assembly Bill) 2011 which was passed through the Parliament with such obscene haste had not only been vigorously opposed by lawyers (Malaysia Bar), civil societies and activist has now been tagged as mala fide by no less than former senior investigating police officer and former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim.

Mat Zain Ibrahim: "I question Najib’s motive in tabling the bill and having it passed speedily in the face of so many people objecting to it."

“Is it to stop protests and peaceful demonstrations over his own misconduct and abuse of power amongst his or senior officials of the government’s administration, past and present?

More from Malaysiakini: Peaceful Assembly Bill mala fide, says ex top cop