SUHAKAM Public Inquiry on "Bloody Sunday" - Day 6

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS

Today is the 6^th day of the inquiry. The inquiry will continue on the following days:

October 17 & 18

Today’s witnesses:

1. SAC (II) Dato’ Mohd Noor bin Masdar (W29)
2. Mohd Nasaruddin Abdul Aziz (W30)
3. ACP Kamal Pasha bin Jamal (W31)
4. Chief Inspector Shafie bin Mohd (W32)
5. Sergeant Zabani bin Sulaiman (W33)
6. Corporal Abu Hassan Rasad (W34)

OCPD: The crowd was unruly because they used unpleasant words!

Six witnesses were called to testify in front of the inquiry panel today.

29^th witness: IGSO states that FRU should not be engaged against passive resisters

Senior Assistant Commissioner of police, SAC (II) Dato’ Mohd Noor Masdar (hereinafter referred to as Mohd Noor) is the first witness of the day. He is the Commander of the Malaysia Federal Reserve Unit (FRU).

Mohd Noor provided the inquiry panel with the Inspector General Standing Order (IGSO), which is meant to be followed by all police personnel. The 13^th paragraph of the IGSO states clearly that the FRU must at all times be guided by the following cardinal principles:

1. Minimum use of force;
2. Strict impartiality; and
3. Adherence to the law.

In accordance to the 14^th paragraph of the IGSO, no FRU should be engaged against an illegal assembly unless trouble breaks out or it is quite clear that the use of force will be necessary to disperse such assembly, e.g. it should not ordinarily be engaged, in the first instance, against “passive resisters”

At one point of time, Mohd Noor could not answer questions asked by the panel properly. Below are some of the conversations between Dato’ Vohrah and Dato’ Mohd Noor:

Vohrah: “The crowd was listening to speeches. Is it threatening?”

Md Noor: “By getting people to listen to speech, there are plans. To me, it’s a planned thing. ”

Vohrah: “Does that constitute a threat to security?”

Md Noor: “Whatever they are trying to do, it came out in internet and SMS.”

Vohrah: “What’s wrong?”

Md Noor: “Under the other law, Police Act and CPC, where an assembly of 3 or 5 or more people, you are required to apply permit.”

When he was told by the inquiry panel that in some jurisdictions, people only need to inform the police to hold an assembly, Mohd Noor unhesitatingly answered: “If the law has changed, we will follow.”

Mohd Noor told the inquiry panel that there is no criterion to disperse crowd in the IGSO. The decision to disperse based solely on the OCPD (officer in charge of police district). Answering a question from the inquiry panel, Mohd Noor told the panel that he thinks Chief Inspector Pusparajan (W28) could identify his troop members.

30^th witness: The situation was under control at all point of time

The diary man of the FRU, Mohd Nasaruddin Abdul Aziz (hereinafter referred to as Nasaruddin) appears as the 30^th witness of the public inquiry.

Time	Events
09:55am	The FRU troop arrived safely at KLCC and standby. Situation is good. (“Keadaan baik”)
10:24am	NGO and representatives of political parties started to give speech on the issue of fuel price hike.
10:40am	Acting on the directive of Dang Wangi OCPD, Chief Inspector Pusparajan gave the crowd first warning to disperse (3 times). The situation is good and under control (“Keadaan baik dan terkawal”)
10:42am	Acting on the directive of Dang Wangi OCPD, Chief Inspector Pusparajan gave the crowd second warning to disperse. The situation is calm and under control (“Keadaan tenang terkawal”)
10:43am	Dang Wangi OCPD directed Chief Inspector Pusparajan to give the crowd third warning to disperse. Chief Inspector Pusparajan announced 3 times. The situation is well under control (“Keadaan baik terkawal”)
10:46am	Under the instruction of Dang Wangi OCPD, Chief Inspector Pusparajan directed to unleash water cannon.
10:48am	Chief Inspector Pusparajan instructed the troop to move forward, in order to disperse the crowd. The situation is under control (“Keadaan terkawal")

Nasaruddin told the inquiry panel that he was only ordered to jot down all commands given by Chief Inspector Pusparajan (W28). Below are the notes excerpted from the diary:

31st witness: The crowd was unruly because they used unpleasant words

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kamal Pasha Jamal (hereinafter referred to as Kamal)
is the third witness of the day. He is the key witness because he was the ground commander of the police force on 28 May 2006.

Kamal told the inquiry panel that his task on 28 May was to supervise and make sure there is no illegal assembly. It was the objective of the operation named “Ops Padam”. He told the panel that he had been monitoring the activity through internet. Kamal also told that he expected the assembly to be unruly. Below are some interesting conversations between the inquiry panel and Kamal Pasha:

Michael Yeoh: In your experience on the first and second gathering, were those peaceful?

Kamal: No. The crowd used unpleasant words. I believe when such words were uttered against the government, some parties might react.

Vohrah: What sort of reaction?

Kamal: They might fight among themselves.

Zaitoon: Has it happened before?

Kamal: I am just anticipating, because certain groups objected the illegal assembly, the people who are from the government side.

Besides, Kamal Pasha told the panel members that about 196 police including 65 FRU personnel were deployed on 28 May. Kamal also told the panel that the police will follow if there is a change in the law that allows public assembly without a police permit. However, he personally feels that our society is not mature enough to apply those jurisdictions.

In his testimony, Kamal told the panel frankly that the helicopter was meant to disrupt the demonstration and to intimidate the crowd. He also admitted that he was the one who instructed the use of water cannon, issued an instruction to arrest and instructed the FRU to move forward.

When he was asked about the crowd, Kamal insists that the crowd was unruly. The conversations are as following:

Kamal: The crowd was unruly. They ignored my order to disperse.

Vohrah: Are you sure? Unruly means violent behaviour.

Kamal: They were shouting.

Vohrah: But not at you. This is called unruly?

Kamal: Yes. There were slogans about police brutality “Turunkan harga minyak”, “Polis ganas”, “Bebaskan tahanan”. They were yelling. They might lose their temper. Their gestures were too emotional and aggressive.

Zaitoon: Did they attack anybody?

Kamal: No. They did not lose their temper yet, but they might.

When he was asked whether he knows about the 9 people who suffered from injuries, Kamal admitted his knowledge. However, he told the panel that the injuries were not serious and those incidents were triggered by the resistance of the protestors.

Kamal told the panel that 12 police reports were made on the aforesaid incident.

32^nd witness: OCPD told the crowd that he will use force if they do not disperse

Chief Inspector Shafie bin Mohd (hereinafter referred to as Shafie) is the 4^th witness of the day. He is attached to the Dang Wangi police district.

On 28 May, Shafie was tasked to arrange the duty of other police officers. He told the panel that he was in the police bus parked in front of Suria KLCC most of the time during the assembly. His duty in the bus (Temporary Control Centre) was to keep Kuala Lumpur headquarter informed about the situation.

Shafie informed the panel that he was not involved in the arrest. He heard OCPD giving instruction to the crowd, asking them to disperse. The exact instruction is:

“Bersurai serta-merta, ataupun kami akan suraikan dengan kekerasan” (Immediately disperse, or we will disperse by using force)

33^rd witness: Water cannon were used for about a minute

Sergeant Zabani bin Sulaiman (hereinafter referred to as Zabani) was the water cannon personnel. He told the public inquiry that he was instructed to unleash water cannon from Chief Inspector Pusparajan. He used the water cannon for about a minute.

When asked whether the water can hurt, Zabani told the panel that it could hurt if the distance is too close. The water was not laced with chemical that day.

34^th witness: I could not identify the FRU personnel because of their visors

Corporal Abu Hassan bin Rasad (hereinafter referred to as Abu Hassan) is the 34^th witness of the public inquiry. He is the Section Commander of Section 1 in the FRU troop. Section 1, 2 and 3 were despatched to control the crowd on 28 May.

As the section commander of Section 1, Abu Hassan told the panel that his duty was to supervise his “boys” (anak buah). 14 members in his section were armed with shields, batons and rubber vests.

Initially, Abu Hassan tended to claim that the crowd was unruly because they shouted and refused to disperse after warnings were given. However, he later conceded that it is not possible that the action of the crowd will bring detrimental effect, though they were ‘emotional’.

Abu Hassan also told the panel that he did involve in crowd control, but he did not push the crowd. Amazingly, when exhibits were shown to him, Abu Hassan claimed that he could not recognize any of his colleagues because of the visor on their helmets. Dato’ Vohrah warned him that he is on oath.

Eventually, Abu Hassan managed to identify two FRU personnel positively. They are Corporal Jasman and Constable Amri. He also told the panel that it was a peaceful dispersal on 28 May.

Before ending the session, the chief of the inquiry panel, Dato’ K.C. Vohrah told the witness solemnly that he should give believable statement in a public inquiry.

The public inquiry will continue at 1pm tomorrow (17 October).