Deaths in Custody

Now that a more reliable account of how Kugan died has been published following a second post mortem, Indians should now look to the prospect of having Syed Albar and even for that matter the Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and his chief of police issued with a warrant for their arrest.

This can be achieved in a number of ways. They include firstly obtaining the cover of a jurisdiction which is not Malaysian. An idependent jurisdiction like the criminal courts in the international courts of justice in the Hague by first proving that either local remedies have been pursued or are likely to be ineffective or denied. The latter is not difficult to do.

To achieve remeddies through the municipal courts for an Indian is near impossible. The Malaysian legal system has of its own material admitted to a system that discriminates, and from recent examples that discrimination takes on criminal dimensions with violent consequences for protagonists. Kugan's death is but one example. But I cite the examples of the body snatching, the kidnapping of children and the physical abuse of complainants at police stations whilst their captors and assailants are let of by the system including the courts through the interference of or wanton silence of government.

A warrant like that issued against the Darfur murderers in Sudan, Pinochette and other examples can be sought from the International Criminal Courts and then served on Badawi or Syed Albar when they do step outside off Malaysia if serving them in Malaysia proves too difficult.

The exacct technicalities that this process involves is not discussed here in any great detail.

The impact of such a warrant will be such that neither Albar nor Badawi would be too comfortable travelling beyond Asias's tyranical borders to say Australia, New Zealand, Europe or the Americas for the simple reason it would be an ignomimious occassion to be served for crimes against humanity as a sovereign leader.

Hindraf should now consider the use of such a means of putting the Malaysian government under pressure. Public pressure for the continued and unchecked murders of innocent Indians in custody of police for no rhyme or reason.If there was one and it were lawful, they would have dealt with it in an open court.

Gopal Raj Kumar