Killing the Devil

In addition to bombs and missiles that have killed an ever increasing number of Palestinian civilians, Israel has dropped millions of flyers on the occupied, besieged Gaza Strip.

TEMAN-teman, saya tidak boleh menulis lebih awal kepada anda kerana bekalan elektrik terputus. Saya ingin menangis. Dr Nizar Rayan, profesor di Universiti Islam terbunuh, dibom bersama seluruh keluarga di dalam rumahnya.

"Dia seorang lelaki berani, enggan meninggalkan rumah walaupun menghadapi ancaman Israel. Prinsipnya ialah tidak gentar menghadapi ancaman, berjuang dengan penuh maruah atau mati sebagai seorang pejuang. Rumahnya dibom oleh empat roket. Tiga isteri dan lapan anak serta cucunya terbunuh.

"Hari ini, ledakan bom masih belum berhenti, malah semakin hebat. Waktu malam amat menggerunkan. Kami tidak mampu untuk tidur kerana ledakan demi ledakan dan cuaca sejuk yang mencengkam.

"Teman-teman, kami yang berada di Gaza kini hidup antara mereka yang terkorban, cedera, diselubungi rasa sedih, tidak bermaya dan kecewa, namun ramai yang masih optimis, berani, bersemangat. Hanya impian untuk mengecap kehidupan yang bebas dan bermaruah, terus menyelamatkan nyawa kami." - Salma Ahmed, 23, guru bahasa Perancis di Pusat Budaya Perancis Gaza.

Ini adalah antara e-mel diterima Pusat Pemantauan Palestin (Palestine Monitor) iaitu laman web khas yang diwujudkan pada Disember 2000, beberapa bulan selepas intifada kedua, sebagai saluran suara rakyat Palestin.

Salma adalah antara ribuan rakyat Palestin yang terperangkap di wilayah bergolak dan sehingga semalam, tentera Israel terus ganas meledakkan bom berangkai dan tentera mula memasuki daerah Semenanjung Gaza.

Keganasan yang tercetus semula di ambang tahun baru 2009, menggegarkan dunia. Dengan sokongan sekutu kuatnya, Amerika Syarikat - yang dalam suasana peralihan kuasa Presiden daripada George W Bush kepada Barack Obama - tentera rejim Yahudi terus bertindak tanpa belas kasihan serta tidak menghiraukan protes masyarakat dunia, malah dengan lantang mencabar 'perubahan dunia' yang ingin dilaksanakan bakal Presiden kulit hitam AS yang pertama itu.

Ketika mata lebih tertumpu kepada angka korban yang meningkat lebih 560 orang dan 2,704 lagi cedera sehingga semalam sejak serangan dilancar 27 Disember lalu, kesengsaraan sebenar rakyat Palestin yang berada dalam wilayah Gaza jauh lebih mencengkam jiwa.

Gambar yang terpampang di media cetak dan elektronik sejak seminggu lalu sudah cukup untuk menceritakan penderitaan rakyat Palestin.

Anak-anak maut di pangkuan ibu bapa, mayat dikafan dengan wajah masih berdarah disembahyangkan ribuan manusia dan tanpa gentar, anak Palestin melukis wajah mereka dengan bendera Palestin, menunjukkan semangat yang belum luntur walaupun diasak keganasan melampau puak Yahudi.

Di sebalik tabir, muncul cerita penderitaan yang lebih menyayat hati. Christina Wadi, anak seorang doktor, diminta ayahnya tidak meninggalkan rumah dan menjauhkan diri dari tingkap, ketika si ayah bergelut menyelamatkan nyawa teman yang cedera di Hospital Shifa.

Mungkin disebabkan serangan bertalu-talu Israel, Christina diserang asma dan memerlukan suntikan kecemasan. Ketiadaan telefon dan kesukaran mendapat pengangkutan membuatkan gadis berusia 15 tahun itu meninggal dunia dalam perjalanan ke hospital di mana ayahnya bekerja.

Serangan yang bermula sejak minggu lalu adalah paling menyayat hati dalam sejarah Palestin sejak Perang 1967.

Penganalisis, Dr Mustafa Barghouthi percaya ini 'hanya permulaan' kepada kempen untuk mewujudkan sebuah daerah keganasan di Semenanjung Gaza.

Beliau cuba merungkai persoalan mengenai pelbagai mitos yang sering diuar-uarkan Israel dan berharap penduduk dunia melihat jenayah perang yang terus dilakukan kaum Yahudi ini ke atas rakyat Palestin.

Mitos yang cuba diuar-uarkan kaum Yahudi ini kepada dunia ialah:

• Israel mendakwa sudah menamatkan penjajahan di Semenanjung Gaza pada 2005 apabila memindahkan penempatan warganya dari kawasan pantai kecil di semenanjung itu. Namun hakikatnya, mereka tidak pernah menamatkan penjajahan ke atas Palestin, sebaliknya terus menguasai sempadan, ruang udara dan terusan air di Gaza.
  
  Malah, sejak 2006, Israel mengenakan sekatan dan kepungan di seluruh Semenanjung Gaza. Lebih dua tahun penduduk Gaza hidup dalam suasana hampir kebuluran, tanpa keperluan asas sewajarnya, terutama bekalan perubatan. Kepungan itu mencetuskan bencana kemanusiaan paling menyayat hati;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa Hamas mencabul gencatan senjata dan menarik diri daripada perjanjian itu secara unilateral. Hamas menghormati gencatan senjata yang dipersetujui, kecuali beberapa kes ketika Israel melakukan pencabulan secara terang di Tebing Barat. Gencatan senjata terlerai dua bulan lalu apabila Israel membunuh beberapa rakyat Palestin, membuatkan Hamas bertindak balas.
  
  Sebaliknya, Israel tidak mematuhi perjanjian dipersetujui untuk menamatkan kepungan dan membenarkan bantuan kemanusiaan penting dibawa masuk ke Gaza. Daripada 450 trak yang dipersetujui dibenar memasuki sempadan setiap hari, pada hari yang mereka berasa murah hati, hanya lapan trak dibenarkan masuk. Sempadan ditutup hampir setiap masa.
  
  Dalam tempoh yang sepatutnya berlaku gencatan senjata, penduduk Gaza dipaksa hidup seperti binatang, menyebabkan 262 meninggal dunia kerana tidak menerima bantuan perubatan yang baik.
  
  Hari ini selepas beratus-ratus rakyat Palestin maut dan angkanya terus meningkat, Israel enggan mengadakan rundingan gencatan senjata. Mereka tidak kisah untuk mencipta keamanan seperti yang didakwa dan lebih jelas mereka kini berusaha untuk membuat perubahan regim;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa ingin mencipta keamanan dengan rakyat Palestin. Sebelum melancarkan pembunuhan beramai-ramai terkini di Gaza, Israel sudah meningkatkan penjajahannya di Tebing Barat. Pada 2008, penambahan penempatan meningkat sehingga 38 tempat, seramai 4,950 rakyat Palestin ditangkap dan pusat pemeriksaan meningkat dari 521 kepada 699;
  
  Di luar skop rundingan damai, Israel membunuh 546 rakyat Palestin dan di kalangan mereka 76 kanak-kanak. Jumlah itu meningkat lebih buruk minggu lalu.
  
  
• Israel mendakwa mereka bertindak kerana mempertahankan diri, tetapi hakikatnya mereka yang mencetuskan semua serangan;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa sasaran mereka hanya tentera, malah tentera Yahudi terus menegaskan perkara yang sama walaupun imej wanita dan kanak-kanak maut dan berdarah terus dipaparkan oleh media dunia. Serangan mereka tidak terhad, malah hospital dan masjid tidak terkecuali.
  
  
• Israel mendakwa mereka menyerang Hamas, bukan rakyat Palestin. Tetapi hakikatnya, ledakan peluru berpandu mereka tidak mengasingkan antara tentera Hamas dan rakyat Palestin. Israel sedar hakikat ini, begitu juga rakyat Palestin. Tetapi Israel juga sedar, walaupun tidak disebut secara lantang, betapa tindakan terbaru ini sebenarnya mengukuhkan lagi semangat Hamas dan rakyat Palestin;
  
  
• Israel mendakwa Palestin adalah sumber keganasan. Rakyat dunia tidak perlu terus ditipu. Penjajahan Palestin sejak 1967 menyaksikan betapa tanah Palestin dirampas Israel dan ia menjadi akar umbi kepada keganasan berpanjangan sehingga hari ini. Keganasan ini boleh dihentikan dengan Israel memberi semula tanah, hak kerakyatan dan hak asasi kepada umat Palestin untuk hidup sebagai manusia merdeka.
  
  Bukan Hamas yang menguasai Tebing Barat. Hari ini rakyat Palestin hidup dalam kepungan Israel dan diserang tanpa sebarang belas ihsan.

"Tanah kami dirampas, hak kami dicabul, suami, isteri dan anak-anak kami dibunuh." Itulah luahan rakyat Palestin.

GAZA: Humanitarian Catastrophe

How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

"The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question."

By Avi Shlaim, Oxford professor of International Relations. (The Guardian, 7 January 2009)

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza’s prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.

Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion’s share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.

In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defence Forces. To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another 12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.

The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority but a prelude to further Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move undertaken in what was seen, mistakenly in my view, as an Israeli national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on their land.

Israel’s settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.

Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only genuine democracy in the Arab world with the possible exception of Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led government. Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.

America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracising and demonising the Hamas government and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed with a significant part of the international community imposing economic sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against the oppressor but against the oppressed.

As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed for their own misfortunes. Israel’s propaganda machine persistently purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics and that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They are no better but they are no worse than any other national group. What they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which to live in freedom and dignity.

Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political programme following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel. Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included Hamas.

It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power. Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in the collapse of the national unity government and in driving Hamas to seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.

The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared aim of the war is to weaken Hamas and to intensify the pressure until its leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel’s terms. The undeclared aim is to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a humanitarian problem and thus to derail their struggle for independence and statehood.

The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election, all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July 2006. Israel’s cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of the pro-western Arab regimes and on blind support from President Bush in the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN Security Council for an immediate ceasefire and issuing Israel with a free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.

As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a conflict between David and Goliath but the Biblical image has been inverted - a small and defenceless Palestinian David faces a heavily armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In Hebrew this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and shooting".

To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict. Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak - terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by these primitive rockets is minimal but the psychological impact is immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government. Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.

Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel’s entire record is one of unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza. Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is unemployed. At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would still be immoral, a form of collective punishment that is strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.

The brutality of Israel’s soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza, Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel’s objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel’s forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel’s spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.

A wide gap separates the reality of Israel’s actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men. Israel’s objective is not just the defence of its population but the eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel is guilty of indiscriminate bombing and of a three-year-old blockade that has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But Israel’s insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.

No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution to the conflict between the two communities. The problem with Israel’s concept of security is that it denies even the most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel to achieve security is not through shooting but through talks with Hamas, which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table: it involves concessions and compromises.

This brief review of Israel’s record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel’s real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.

Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and the author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and of Lion of Jordan: King Hussein’s Life in War and Peace.

غز

The Gaza Strip is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea currently governed by Hamas. It borders Egypt on the south-west and Israel on the north and east. It is about 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers.

The area is not recognized internationally as part of any sovereign country but is claimed by the Palestinian National Authority as part of the Palestinian territories.

Since the June 2007 battle of Gaza, actual control of the area is in the hands of the Hamas de facto government. Israel, which governed the Gaza Strip from 1967-2005, still controls the strip's airspace, territorial waters, and offshore maritime access, as well as its side of the Gaza-Israel border.

This continued control has allowed the Israeli state, which opposes Hamas, to control the inflow and outflow of Gaza's essential resources, including food.

Whenever food is in short supply, Gazan have had little choice but to take in food supplied by World Food Programe workers in the area. Egypt governed the Gaza Strip from 1948-1967 and today runs the southern border between the Gaza strip and the Sinai desert, a border now famous for the breach in early 2008. The territory takes its name from Gaza, its main city. It has about 1.4 million Palestinian Arab (or Gazan) residents.

فلسطین

WAR ON GAZA

I am so overwhelmed by the latest news about the suffering of the people of Gaza that I have to mention it.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since Israel first occupied the territory in 1967. More than 80% of Palestinians in Gaza rely on humanitarian assistance; travel in and out of Gaza is all but impossible; and supplies of food and water, as well as sewage treatment and basic health care are severely restricted.

Between 25-30% of the population of the Gaza Strip do not receive running water at home because electricity is not available for pumping. About 30-40 million liters of sewage flows untreated into the sea every day.

Half the population in Gaza are children, and their education as well as their mental health is being damaged by the cumulative effects of the occupation, closures, poverty and violence. All of this is documented in a report drawn up by charities.

In the short term you can help to improve the well being of the Palestinian people by donating money and idea.

In the longer term, you can help by writing to the foreign secretary and the Prime Minister, asking them to bring pressure to bear on Israel to abide by international law, and to find a just settlement for the Palestinian people.

SAH KETAMIN, ECSTASY

KUALA LUMPUR: Polis mengesahkan penyampai berita sebuah stesen televisyen swasta dan pelakon wanita sambilan yang ditahan dalam pesta sambutan tahun baru di sebuah hotel di Jalan P Ramlee, di sini, awal pagi kelmarin, positif dadah.

Difahamkan, personaliti televisyen itu, Farahrizan Abdul Razak, 23, serta pelakon sambilan terbabit positif dadah Ecstasy serta ketamin.

Turut disahkan positif dadah adalah tujuh lagi individu ditahan bersama mereka kerana menyertai pesta itu dalam sebuah bilik ditempah khas di tingkat 11, hotel terbabit sempena sambutan tahun baru, awal pagi kelmarin.

Tujuh lagi disah ambil ketamin, Ecstasy dalam pesta seks

Sementara itu, Ketua Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Kuala Lumpur, Senior Asisten Komisioner II Ku Chin Wah, berkata semua 26 diberkas dalam kejadian itu ditahan reman hingga esok untuk siasatan lanjut.

"Hasil ujian air kencing yang dilakukan, tiga wanita termasuk penyampai berita dan pelakon sambilan itu serta enam lelaki berusia antara 20 hingga 30 tahun didapati positif Ecstasy dan ketamin.

"Kes ini disiasat Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Narkotik Kuala Lumpur mengikut Seksyen 15(1)(a) dan Seksyen 12(2) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952. Kita juga mahu mengesan sumber dadah seperti Ecstasy, ketamin dan syabu yang ditemui di tempat kejadian," katanya, ketika dihubungi, di sini semalam.

Semalam, akhbar melaporkan penyampai berita serta pelakon tambahan itu bersama 24 yang lain diberkas anggota Cawangan Perjudian, Kongsi Gelap dan Maksiat (D7) Ibu Pejabat Kontinjen (IPK) Polis Kuala Lumpur yang menyerbu bilik hotel berkenaan, kira-kira jam 3 pagi kelmarin.

Pesta itu dipercayai dianjurkan sepasang suami isteri berusia lingkungan 20-an yang baru melangsungkan perkahwinan tiga minggu lalu.

PESTA SEKS

Pembaca, pelakon 'bebas' tuduhan pesta seks, direman hingga Ahad

RAKAMAN rakaman siaran televisyen menunjukkan antara mereka yang ditahan, dipercayai menyertai 'pesta seks' menjelang tahun baru 2009 awal pagi, Jumaat lalu.

KUALA LUMPUR: Seramai 26 orang termasuk pembaca berita dan pelakon wanita, yang ditahan kerana dipercayai mengadakan parti seks di sini sempena Tahun Baru 2009 awal Jumaat lalu tidak akan dikenakan tuduhan berkaitan pesta seks.

Sebaliknya mereka telah dirujuk kepada jabatan narkotik untuk tindakan lanjut kerana menggunakan dadah.

Mereka termasuk seorang pembaca berita berusia 22 tahun, yang berkhidmat dengan rangkaian televisyen swasta dan seorang pelakon wanita sambilan, yang juga penulis skrip.

Kesemua mereka ditahan dalam serbuan polis di sebuah bilik di tingkat 11 hotel empat bintang di Jalan P. Ramlee kira-kira 3.30 pagi semalam.

Ketika serbuan kesemua mereka berpakaian lengkap manakala beberapa kondom yang tidak digunakan juga ditemui.

Ketua Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Polis Kuala Lumpur, Asisten Kominisioner Kanan (II) Ku Chin Wah berkata, kes itu telah dipindahkan ke jabatan narkotik untuk tindakan lanjut kerana dadah ditemui di kawasan kejadian.

Ketua Jabatan Narkotik Kuala Lumpur, Asisten Komisioner Kang Chez Chiang berkata, ujian awal menunjukkan sembilan orang termasuk pembaca berita dan pelakon berkenaan positif mengambil dadah.

"Kesemua sembilan orang itu, yang berusia antara 20 dan 30 tahun didapati positif ujian menggunakan ekstasi dan ketamin dan mereka akan dihantar ke Hospital Kuala Lumpur Hospital untuk ujian lanjut," katanya.

Kang juga berkata, kesemua mereka akan direman hingga Ahad ini.

"Kami menyoal mereka untuk memberitahu sumber dadah diperoleh untuk siasatan lanjut," katanya.

Majistret Amalia Marsita Hamdan membenarkan reman ke atas mereka di bawah Seksten 15 (1)(a) Akta Dadah Berbajaya dan Seksyen 39A (1) akta yang sama.

TAHAN...tiga wanita yang ditahan ketika berseronok dalam parti liar di sebuah bilik hotel mewah di ibu kota, Jumaat lalu.

Pesta seks: Penyampai berita kahwin minggu depan antara 26 ditahan

KUALA LUMPUR: Seorang penyampai berita televisyen swasta dan seorang pelakon wanita adalah antara 26 orang yang ditahan dalam pesta seks dan dadah sambutan tahun baru di sebuah bilik hotel di Jalan P. Ramlee di sini, awal pagi semalam.

Penyampai berita berusia 22 tahun itu dijadual melangsungkan perkahwinan pada 10 Januari ini.

Operasi pukul 3.30 pagi yang diketuai oleh ASP Mahani Ahmad dari Bahagian D7 cawangan maksiat, judi dan kongsi gelap Ibu Pejabat Polis Kontinjen Kuala Lumpur (IPKKL )itu turut mendapati pembaca berita wanita dan pelakon itu positif dadah.

Mahani berkata, serbuan di sebuah bilik di tingkat 11 itu turut menemui pelbagai jenis dadah seperti ketamin, kokain dan syabu serta minuman keras.

"Kesemua 26 yang ditahan berumur 18 hingga 31 tahun dan sembilan daripadanya iaitu enam lelaki dan tiga wanita positif dadah," katanya ketika dihubungi di sini semalam.

Beliau berkata pembaca berita wanita itu gagal dalam saringan pertama ujian air kencing yang mana didapati positif dadah jenis ketamin dan syabu.

Mahani berkata turut ditahan dalam serbuan itu seorang pelajar dari sebuah kolej swasta di Kelana Jaya berusia 20 tahun yang dipercayai ejen pembekal dadah.

Katanya ketika serbuan terdapat tiga pasangan berada di atas katil manakala selebihnya sedang berhibur dalam keadaan separuh sedar dipercayai mabuk.

Difahamkan pesta seks dan dadah itu dianjurkan oleh dua lelaki dan kesemua mereka berkenalan di dalam kelab dan melalui rangkaian laman web friendster.

Kesemua mereka yang ditahan dibawa ke IPKKL dan sembilan yang positif dadah disiasat di bawah Sekyen 15 (1)9(a) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1950.

Sementara itu, sambutan malam tahun baru di Bukit Bintang tercemar apabila kira-kira 40 orang ditahan atas pelbagai kesalahan.

Tinjauan Bernama di sekitar kawasan Bukit Bintang mendapati beberapa kejadian pergaduhan membabitkan remaja dilaporkan berlaku sejurus selepas detik 12 malam semalam.

Antara punca pergaduhan itu adalah akibat salah faham dan kerana mabuk.

Bagaimanapun anggota polis yang bertugas bertindak pantas meleraikan pergaduhan itu dan mereka yang terlibat telah ditahan untuk siasatan.

Selain itu, ada di kalangan pelancong asing yang menjadi sasaran peragut membabitkan kehilangan wang tunai, pasport dan alatan elektronik (gadget).

Sebanyak 10 laporan polis telah diterima oleh Balai Polis Bergerak yang ditempatkan di lokasi sambutan Tahun Baru di Jalan Bukit Bintang tersebut.

Seramai 200 anggota polis termasuk Pasukan Gerakan Am (PGA) bertugas membuat kawalan pada malam itu. BERNAMA.