Blood and Mayhem Against Kg Rimba Settlers – Baton Beatings, Knife Stabs, Gun Shots
Update Thurs, 3.30pm
Head on over to Raajarox.com for some pics of this violent tragedy.
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Update 11.50pm:
I was in such a rush earlier that I forgot to point out that lawyer P Uthayakumar is the guy who recognised me during my remand hearing and was kind enough to alert my lawyer. He was a real huge help that day.
I think the lawyers have been released at least, thank goodnes… But such blood. Such injustice… :(
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original post:
While most of Malaysia is distracted by Lingam, lawyers and so many other important things, authorities are still beating up citizens.
I’m angry. Flashes of Kg Berembang are coming back…
But so much I need to finish up right now. In the meantime, here’s (long, sorry MK) excerpts from Malaysiakini:
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The Kampung Rimba Jaya in Padang Jawa, near Shah Alam was a chaotic scene last night when residents tried to prevent the Shah Alam City Hall from demolishing their houses.
The residents’ attempt to save their homes turned physical and bloody when scores were hurt in the ensuing melee.
Fifteen residents were also arrested and are now being detained at the Shah Alam Section 11 police station.
In the end, over 200 houses, a 100-year-old temple and a surau have been levelled to the ground by the authorities. Even the presence of MIC president S Samy Vellu could not save the houses and the temple.
And later in the day, four lawyers – human rights lawyers P Uthayakumar and P Waythamoorthy as well as DAP lawyers M Manoharan and S Ganabathi Rao – were also arrested by the police when they attempted to enter Section 11 police station to help the release of the residents.
The police have today obtained a four-day remand order against the residents, said DAP legal bureau chief A Sivanesan.
The lawyers are still being held under custody although no remand order has been obtained against them as yet.
When contacted Sivanesan also said that at least two residents suffered serious injuries.
“A woman, in her fifties and a 16-year-old boy suffered great injury. Their clothes are soaked with their own blood and they are still wearing them,” he said.
The lawyers were arrested for creating a scuffle in front of the Section 11 police station after they were refused entry by the police.
In the report lodged at the same police station, Waythamoorthy said that he was manhandled and had a machine-gun pointed at him when he inquired as to why the lawyers were being refused entry.
“I was pushed down and stepped on my leg, preventing me from getting up,” his report stated.
“I injured my head, my back and elbow…the same constable threatened to shoot me if I didn’t go out and his machine-gun was pointed at me while I was still on the ground,” he said.
He added in his report that he and the other lawyers faced racial abuses from the other police personnel at the station, with one policeman allegedly stating that he would “make sure I’m kept in lock up tonight”.
Meanwhile, human rights activist S Kumaravel, 44, said a surau was also demolished by council authorities in the eviction exercise yesterday.
The surau is located in Rimba Jaya, about one kilometre away from the temple. The Sri Maha Mariaman temple is located in Rimba Jaya. Residents from nearby Kampung Karuppiah carry out their prayers at the temple.
Kumaravel, who is Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (Jerit) exco member, said over 200 houses in Rimba Jaya were demolished in the exercise that saw at least 300 police personnel, including the Federal Reserve Unit, participating.
Rimba Jaya is mostly populated by Malays while Kampung Karuppiah is mostly populated by Indians.
The MPSA enforcement officers were beating people with batons, said Kumaravel.
“I saw an enforcement officer pulling out a knife and waving it around threateningly,” said Kumaravel.
It took almost three hours to demolish the Sri Maha Mariaman temple. The temple’s nursery was the first to be demolished when the exercise began yesterday morning.
After a pause at noon, the demolition continued at 2pm and continued for another three hours amidst resistance from at least 400 residents. Several hundred council enforcement officers were also present.
News reports said stones were thrown between both sides.
In addition to that, today’s Sin Chew Jit Poh reported that police fired several shots at a lorry, puncturing at least one tyre. Nanyang Siang Pau reported that five shots were fired. The report said several residents had tried to escape the police in the lorry. They were later arrested.
There were also accounts of a stabbing, but which could not be verified as yet.
“They should have waited until Deepavali is over before they begin demolishing the temple. At least the residents have somewhere to pray,” said Kumaravel.
Tamil dailies also reported that the residents had shown their anger towards Samy Vellu for not doing anything to help them. Samy Vellu is quoted as saying that he would raise the matter with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
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What is there to raise? Can you raise homes, suraus or temples from the ground?
Can you un-beat people with batons? Un-fire shots?
A bit late, isn’t it?
>:[
See also eyewitness report from Tony Pua.
They are Malaysian citizen for god sake!
Small matter..only few hundreds or thousands, compared to what the new development will bring along new voters.
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The Barisan Nasional is not doing much for indians and even interfer with their beleives. Why should we support the BN.Let us not vote for Barisan Nasional
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poor indian, if this is malay kampung no problem. face the truth your presiden cannot help you guys. seem likes BN now only control by 1 party. what to do next just vote for the visely man.
At some point in time..you need to stand up for your rights no matter how painful it is……you cannot be submissive all your life……to the Rimba folks ……Indians in general sold their rights for money, land titles, etc in Ijok……when you do something like that……..you must be ready to be again submissive and face the consequences………feel sorry for these folks but they brought this onto themselves……..
oh no … malaysia will become the next myanmar. how could police simply open fire on a unarmed lorry, with M16!
this kind of events are quite common nowadays under the rule of the current government. The PM is just not effective as a PM, I always believe that if the head is in control then every body part will be united and in control as well. But nowadays that doesn’t seems to be the case! We are all Malaysians, why cant we live as people of a single nation, as Malaysians? The current govt (more like UMNO) just wants to keep up with the Ketuanan Melayu Agenda and have made it very clear to the other races, toe the line or get out of the country! Guess we are all now in the same boat as the immigrants! Just 20 years ago, things were so different, we were so united, open houses would mean having friends of different races, you would have friends of differents races, not anymore.. and thats really sad!
ali bakar
what makes you think they brought this unto themselves. lets not presume that they are supporters of BN. even they are, i am sure they have woke up now.
collectively, let us be united in telling the powers-that-be they should be serving the rakyat. not just malays, indians or chinese or for the matter any other ethnics. its to serve those that need help regardless of creed and religion.
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I have uploaded some pics on this incident to my blog.
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The nation just celebrated 50th year or independence…Can someone refresh my memory reason this independece being – was it against the flight of komunisme etc….before long; all twats written in history seems like merely myth…….What have 50 years brought us, something so undestined and what about another 50 more years to come……..seems to be so contradicting untrue, or shall I say FALSE STORIES of yester years – 50 TAHUN MERDEKA…….ALL WE NEED IS A SOCIETY THAT DO NOT EXCLUDE ANY OTHER FROM BIASENESS AND EQUALITY OF HUMAN KIND – ps (notice i did not use Mankind as we need to learn to be more human)