POLIS MENGUSIR PERHIMPUANAN HARAM BERIBU ORANG

Mungkin takut kepada warrant daripada makhamah (polis telah dapat warrant daripada makhamah untuk menghalang perhimpunan haram), 5000 orang yang ingin menghadiri perhimpunan haram telah menukar lokasi mereka ke BATU CAVES pada awal pagi ini.
Pada pukul 4 lebih, polis meminta semua peserta perhimpanan haram meninggal dari tempat tersebut tetapi gagal dan menjadikan emosi mereka tidak terkawal. Oleh kerana emosi peserta-peserta perhimpunan haram tidak terkawal, polis terpaksa menggunakan gas pemedih mata dan bom air untuk mengusir mereka.
Seorang pegawai polis cedera akibat dibuang batu oleh peserta perhimpunan haram. Beberapa orang peserta perhimpunan haram telah ditangkap.
Malaysia's police fire tear gas, water cannons on ethnic Indian demonstrators
Sunday, November 25, 2007
By JULIA ZAPPEI
Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Police fired tear gas and water cannons Sunday to crush a banned rally by more than 10,000 ethnic minority Indians a rare street clash that exposed Muslim Malaysia's deep racial divisions.

Slogan-shouting protesters hurled water bottles and stones at police, who chased them through streets surrounding the famous Petronas Twin Towers and doused them repeatedly with tear gas and chemical-laced water for more than eight hours. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Witnesses saw people being beaten and dragged into trucks by police. Shoes and broken flower pots littered the scene after protesters scattered to hide in hotels and shops. Organizers said hundreds of people were detained, but city Police Chief Zulhasnan Najib Baharudin declined to provide figures.

The rally rooted in complaints that the ethnic Malay Muslim-dominated government discriminates against minorities was the largest protest in at least a decade involving ethnic Indians, the country's second-biggest minority after the Chinese, and the most underprivileged.

``This gathering is unprecedented,'' said protest leader P. Uthayakumar. ``This is a community that can no longer tolerate discrimination.''

Thousands more massed in Batu Caves, a Hindu temple in a limestone cave on Kuala Lumpur's outskirts.

``The day must come when the time bomb will explode. We cannot be patient forever,'' demonstrator Lingam Suppiah said.
It was the second such street protest in Malaysia's largest city this month. A Nov. 10 rally that drew thousands of people demanding electoral reforms was also broken up with similar force.

Street demonstrations are extremely rare in multiethnic Malaysia, which prides itself on its communal and political stability. The two protests indicate that Malaysians are becoming bolder about venting their frustrations publicly against a political system that concentrates power and influence in the hands of the Malay ruling elite.

Sunday's rally was meant to support a $4 trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by the Hindu Rights Action Force, a Malaysian rights group, demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as ``indentured laborers'' and exploiting them.

Samy Vellu, the government's top ethnic Indian politician, denounced Sunday's protest as ``an opposition ploy to smear the government's image.''

http://wbztv.com/worldwire/Malaysia-IndianProtes/resources_news_html

Posted in: