World Information Tuesday

Thai police accused of bias
toward Thaksin
Agence France-Presse . Bangkok

More than 2,000 anti-government protesters Monday blocked one of the busiest roads in downtown Bangkok, accusing police of bias in favour of supporters of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Protesters from the so-called People’s Alliance for Democracy marched to the national police headquarters, in the middle of Bangkok’s busiest retail and business district. They have rallied for nearly seven weeks to call for the current government to step down, accusing the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, of acting as Thaksin’s puppet.
Wearing yellow shirts in honour of Thailand’s king, the cheering activists rallied in the street outside the police compound, snarling traffic in a city already notorious for its gridlock.
‘We know there are good police and bad police. We want to support the good police, but for the bad police who help politicians, don’t you feel ashamed?’ said Somsak Kosaisuk, a PAD leader who spoke to the crowd from the back of a truck.
He accused the police of failing to aggressively investigate complaints that a former cabinet minister and Thaksin aide had insulted King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a serious offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Protests by PAD in early 2006 foreshadowed the coup later that year against Thaksin, who was accused of widespread corruption by the military.



Malaysian family loses
‘bodysnatching’ dispute
Agence France-Presse . Penang, Malaysia

A Hindu family in multicultural Malaysia on Monday lost a court battle with Islamic authorities over the rights to the body of their relative who a religious court declared to be Muslim.
In the nation’s latest dispute over Islamic conversion, the family of Elangesvaran Benedict, who committed suicide last month, said he remained a Hindu and should be buried according to the rites of the religion.
But their lawyer Karpal Singh said the High Court backed a Sharia court’s decision and said Elangesvaran should be buried as a Muslim. ‘The Sharia court has already declared him a Muslim. And he should be rightly buried as one,’ Karpal quoted judge Balia Yusuf Wahi Balia as telling lawyers in chambers.
Officials said religious authorities will claim the body from a local hospital and perform the burial ceremony late Monday.
The Islamic authorities last Friday secured an order in the Sharia religious court – where the family was not represented – that said Elangesvaran had converted to the religion.
The deceased man’s brother, Selvam, said the family was saddened by the decision.
‘We are extremely disappointed. But what can we do? We intend to appeal this decision,’ he said. The case is the latest in a series of allegations of ‘body-snatching’ by Islamic authorities, who have seized remains against the objections of non-Muslim family members.
The cases have fed accusations over the growing ‘Islamisation’ of Malaysia, where the population is dominated by Muslim Malays living alongside ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.
Malaysia’s government has proposed new rules on converting to Islam, in a bid to prevent the wrangles that have split families and incited racial tensions in the country.