Amnesty criticises Malaysian offer

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 38

Amnesty criticises Malaysian offer

PA Wellington A. Malaysian offer to release its internal security detainees to individuals and groups in “liberal countries” has been labelled a.further violation of human rights by the'New Zealand section of Amnesty International. A. statement by the Malaysian High Commission in Wellington quoted the Malay-, sian deputy Prime Minister (Datuk Musa.Hitam) as saying his Government would be happy to provide facilities to process the exit of the detainees from Malaysia.

He said 444 people were detained under the Internal Security Act, and upon adoption by the individuals and groups the detainees wo'dld forfeit their citizenship. It would be up to the adoptive parties to sponsor the. detainees to be the citizens of the recipient. country. He said the adoption offer was in response to many telegrams, letters and applications from individuals and groups mostly in Sweden, the United States, West Germany and Britain, demanding the release and trials of Internal Security Act detainees.

' He said the offer was not in retaliation to criticism of the Malaysian Government about detainees, but “rather that we are doing the socalled human rights cham-

pions a favour and that we are just being human.” Malaysia maintains that their detention was based on the country’s perception of the threat to its national security; it was the national right and the Government’s right, after being elected, to determine ways of eliminating that threat. Amensty International’s . New Zealand chairman, Mr . David McGill, said this was a further violation of human rights, “They are not doing us a favour — they are doing themselves a favour in get-

ting rid of the people they do not want," he said. He said Amnesty believed the detainees had a right to participate in their own country’s affairs and should be free to develop within their, own countries. The Malaysian offer, said Mr McGill, was’ similar to Cuba’s Fidel Castro dumping Sle he did not want, inng criminals, on the United States. “We have nothing to do with this sort of nonsense. It is a way of getting rid of people they find politically embarrassing,” he said.