The Cleavage: Kamunting Detention Center

Kamunting Detention Center (KEMTA)

Location:	Kamunting,Perak Malaysia
Coordinates:	4°54′33″N 100°44′13″E / 4.90917°N 100.73694°E / 4.90917; 100.73694
Status:	Active
Security class:	Maximum Security
Managed by:	Kementerian Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (Ministry of Home Affairs)
Director:	Syed Hamid Albar

Kamunting Detention Centre (Malay: Kem Tahanan Perlindungan Kamunting) is a prison camp located in Kamunting, near the town of Taiping, Perak, in Malaysia. The prison is used by the government to detain and interrogate persons arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA). The detention is also known as Malaysia's Supermax prison or Maximum security prison. It is alleged that this is the site where the Malaysian authorities would hold up political prisoners, usually from the opposition, and conduct torture against detainees.^[1] Among notable events which prompted widespread use of the ISA were Operation Lalang in 1987 and the years during the Reformasi movement, beginning 1999. The centre has also been used to detain other groups of people declared by the government to be a threat to national security such as terrorists and cults. Some notable groups detained in Kamunting includes the Al-Arqam cult and the Al-Ma'unah terrorist group.

[edit] Notable Ex-Detainees

Anwar Ibrahim - Former Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister.

Lim Kit Siang - Opposition Leader

Jeffrey Kitingan - Sabah politician

Karpal Singh - Opposition Leader

[edit] Recent Detainees

In December 2007, one of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) member and leader, M. Manoharan, was arrested under the ISA and sent to detention in Kamunting. As of December 2008, he has yet to be released despite being successfully elected as a state assemblyman for Selangor in the 2008 general election.

Latest addition to the Kamunting Detention Center is Raja Petra Kamarudin^[2] who is the editor of Malaysia Today, a blog critical of the Malaysian government. He was held after the Home Minister signed detention papers to hold him for insulting Islam. No details of the nature of this insult have been given, and the ISA arrest means that there is no need for any legal case to be made against him. His detention started on 22 September 2008, and it lasted 56 days until his release after the court accepted his habeas corpus plea on 7 November 2008.