Aliran's comments not carried in The Star

On Saturday, 24 April, a reporter saying he is from The Star phoned the Aliran office asking for comments on Suhakam's findings regarding police violation of the rights of villagers from Kundasang, Sabah where they were remanded in police cells last year.

The violations came to light in a Suhakam public inquiry whose panel comprised K C Vohrah, Tan Sri Dr Ramon Navaratnam and Datuk Dr Monir Yaacob.

We responded as follows to The Star reporter:

"The horrendous conditions in lock-up cells are a terrible nightmare for detainees. The detaining authorities seem not to realise that detainees do not lose their human rights while under detention.

"Cramming them into overcrowded cells under inhuman sanitary conditions is criminal breach of conduct that doesn't warrant mercy.

"The chief of the Ranau police station must be charged for conduct unbecoming of a human being.

"Magistrates are not sensitive to the abuse of human rights. In spite of numerous instances which had established that long remands are unnecessary, magistrates freely sign away the rights and freedom of citizens. In this case, where Suhakam had concluded that there was no need for the maximum 14 days remand, shouldn't the magistrate be required to apologise to the Kundasang villagers?"

Not a word of these comments was published in "The People's Paper".