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A Memorandum  was handed over to SUHAKAM on 15 May 2008 in respect of an incident that had occurred at the Lenggeng detention camp on 21 April 2008 and the subsequent inaccurate reports by the authorities as to the cause of the incident.

The meeting organised for the purposes of handing over this Memorandum was attended by Dato’ Siva Subramaniam (SUHAKAM Commissioner), an officer from SUHAKAM, Dr Irene Fernandez (TENAGANITA), Yap Swee Seng and Temme Lee (SUARAM), Latheefa Koya (Ad Hoc Immigration Sub-Committee of the Law Reform and Special Areas Committee, Bar Council) and myself (Human Rights Committee, Bar Council).

Prior to the handing over of the Memorandum, I had briefed the attendees about the reports the Human Rights Committee had received and the Committee’s subsequent visit and interviews with suspects detained at the Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Seremban for the alleged rioting at Lenggeng. The interviews conducted did reveal that there were serious discrepancies between what actually took place and the reports that were circulated through the media.

The representatives from SUARAM then detailed some of the discrepancies which included the following:

(i) Nine detainees were reported to have been abused physically on the day before the fire. The abuse was within the sight and/or hearing of all the detainees.

(ii) All of the detainees vocally protested against the abuse and refused breakfast the next morning.

(iii) The source of the fire was witnessed by all inmates to have originated from the immigration office within the camp and there was no way the detainees could have caused it as they were all locked in their cells.

(iv) All immigration and RELA personnel in charge of the camp at that time, and witnessed by many of the inmates, left the vicinity immediately before the smoke began to billow out of the immigration office.

The presentation concluded with TENAGANITA summarising the problem and outlining the groups' immediate demands which included protection for the witnesses to the incident, and transfer of the control of the detainees to the Prisons Department.

Dato’ Subramaniam confirmed that he too had received contradicting reports and had made preliminary investigations. He expressed his concern regarding the role of RELA in assuming control over the detention centres which he said were overcrowded and not in compliance with acceptable standards. He informed us that SUHAKAM would be meeting on 21 May 2008 to discuss the possibility of conducting an inquiry into this incident and taking the officers responsible for the incident to task.

After taking questions from the floor, the Memorandum was handed over at 11.30am.

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