Malaysia police to question Anwar's wife

Police will call Wan Azizah at her house on Friday afternoon, she says

In this story: Media complaints Racial clashes RELATED STORIES, SITES

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, wife of Malaysia's jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, will face police questioning over remarks on the death toll of this month's ethnic clashes.

Malaysian police said they would quiz four opposition leaders over allegations the number of dead in clashes between ethnic Malays and Indians in the outskirts of the capital exceeded the official toll of six killed.

"They will ask me whether I intentionally made seditious remarks," Wan Azizah told a news agency, adding police were due to call at her house late Friday afternoon.

On March 12, Wan Azizah, president of the National Justice Party, and three politicians from the other opposition parties in the Alternative Front alliance issued a joint-statement questioning the official death toll.

Selangor state police chief Nik Ismail Nik Yusof said they would use sedition laws to probe the claims, before lodging a police report against the four opposition leaders.

Nik Ismail also said the Wan Azizah's party - also known as Parti Keadilan Nasional -- and Parti Islam se-Malaysia (Pas) -- had been distributing pamphlets disputing the death toll.

Both Kerk Kim Hock, secretary general of the Democratic Action Party, and Syed Husin Ali, president of the Malaysian People's Party, were already quizzed by police.

Nasharudin Mat Isa, secretary general of Pas, said police had contacted his office, and he expected to face police questioning within a couple days.

Media complaints

Police also said they would file a report against outspoken online news site malaysiakini.com. However, Steven Gan, editor-in-chief of malaysiakini.com, said: "So far, we haven't heard anything from them."

Activists from Malaysia's ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), have also urged authorities to investigate five foreign news organizations for what they said was malicious coverage of the recent violence.

UMNO officials said some of the foreign media had given more prominence to opposition versions of the ethnic clashes than the accounts given by the government and police.

Wan Azizah's husband, Anwar, is serving a 15-year jail sentence for sex and graft crimes he says were cooked up to stop his challenge to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's rule,

Mahathir sacked Anwar in 1998, and says his protege is immoral and unfit to rule.

The U.S. described Anwar as a political prisoner.

Racial clashes

Groups wielding stocks, machetes and pipes roamed the neighborhoods of Kampung Medan at the height of the violence after the fighting between Malays and Indians started on March 8.

Four Indians, a Malay and an Indonesian died in the clashes, said to be the worst seen in Malaysia for 30 years.

Racial violence is an extremely sensitive issue in Malaysia, where 55 percent of the 22 million population are Malay, 30 percent Chinese and eight percent Indian, with other indigenous people making up the remainder.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Malaysia police name opposition in sedition probe
March 15, 2001
Malaysia's sedition laws used to probe race toll
March 14, 2001
Six killed in Malaysian ethnic clashes
March 12, 2001

Malaysia Prime Minister's Office
Malaysiakini.com
Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front)

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