Caning of refugees in Malaysia sparks protest

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia has caned dozens of refugees as illegal immigrants, a refugee group said, sparking criticisms by rights organizations that the government is torturing people it should protect.

Malaysia arrested up to 300 of Myanmar's Rohingya refugees at the weekend for alleged immigration offences, raising fears they too could face caning, a top leader of the refugees told Reuters.

"We no longer find Malaysia a safe haven," said Zafar Ahmad, president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organisation Malaysia. "At least 80 Rohingyas have been caned previously."

Malaysia is home to 2.7 million foreign workers, including 700,000 working illegally. The government's practice of caning criminals is under intense scrutiny after a video of a prison-yard caning session was posted on the Internet.

In the video, a naked man is shown strapped to an upright wooden frame, his rear exposed to a uniformed official who lifts a meter-long rattan stick above his head before bringing it down on the prisoner's buttocks, tearing the flesh with each strike.

The video, in which the moaning and shaking prisoner is struck six times, has spread quickly across the Internet, capturing headlines on the Web sites of some European newspapers and forcing the Malaysian government onto the defensive.

"The government at this stage has no plans to abolish the cane as part of punishment," Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow told Reuters last week. He denied that use of the cane against illegal immigrants was widespread.

MANDATORY JAIL

Malaysia is home to an estimated 46,000 refugees, but just over 36,000 are registered with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Of the total, about 12,700 are members of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority, another 12,000 are members of other Myanmar minority ethnic groups.

The Rohingyas came in the 1990s from Myanmar, but the government there disputes their origin and refuses to let them return.

Malaysia views refugees as illegal immigrants since the country has yet to sign the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, which has been ratified by more than 140 nations.

"Anyone without a travel document is subject to caning, as prescribed by the Immigration Act," the Immigration Department's enforcement chief, Ishak Mohamed, said.

Illegal immigrants face a mandatory jail sentence of up to five years and up to six strokes of the cane. Males above 50 and women are exempted from caning.

Lawyers and rights group advocates said Malaysia should ban caning, saying it was inhumane.

"Human Rights Watch condemns caning as a barbaric practice. It has no place in a civilized society," the group's Asia director, Brad Adams, told Reuters.

"Allegations that caning has been used against Rohingyas should be thoroughly investigated by independent agencies."

Malaysia's Bar Council, which groups about 12,000 lawyers, recently passed a resolution calling for a ban on caning.

The council's Legal Aid Centre said the immigration courts set up to deal with immigration cases should not be too hasty in handing out punishments.

"It is like a slaughter house," said Latheefa Koya of the Legal Aid Centre. "People come in their hundreds to these courts and all the judge really wants to do is to tear up this backlog of cases, so miscarriages can happen."

(Additional reporting by Mark Bendeich)