Hindraf Rally - More reports

The following are more reports on the Hindraf rally held on 25 Nov 2007.

Malaysian police break up rally - BBC

Malaysian police have clashed with ethnic Indian protesters in Kuala Lumpur, the country's capital.

Tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse a crowd of over 5,000 people as they rallied outside the British High Commission.

The protesters are calling for reparations from the UK for sending Indians to Malaysia as indentured labourers a century ago.

The activists also demand measures to improve the living standards of Hindus.

At least 5,000 ethnic Indian men gathered outside Kuala Lumpur's famous Petronas Towers, carrying Malaysian flags and placards.

Some demonstrators were beaten and bundled into police vans, as tear gas and water cannon were fired into the crowd, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Unfair treatment

Organisers had pledged that the demonstration would be peaceful, but Malaysian authorities nevertheless banned it, fearing that it could inflame racial tensions.

The ostensible aim of the rally was to call on the British government to pay $4 trillion (£2 trillion) in compensation to the two million ethnic Indians in Malaysia whose ancestors were taken to the country as indentured labourers in the 19th century.

But the BBC's Robin Brant in Kuala Lumpur says the real goal of the demonstrators is to highlight what they see as the unfair treatment of minority Indians in Malaysia.

Ethnic Indians - mainly Hindus - form one of Malaysia's largest minority groups.

Activists say that many Hindus live in poverty, partly because of policies granting jobs and economic advantages to the ethnic Malay Muslim majority.

"Indians are treated like third-class citizens. The community has been suffering in silence for decades," said opposition politician M. Kulasegaran.

The government has rejected claims of unfair discrimination.

In advance of the rally, three leading members of the group behind the protest - the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) - were arrested.

The three men were later charged with making seditious comments - and could face up to three years in jail if convicted.

Indian protest rocks Malaysia ahead of polls - Reuters

By Mark Bendeich and Clarence Fernandez
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's ethnic Indian community staged its
biggest anti-government street protest on Sunday when more than 10,000
protesters defied tear gas and water cannon to voice complaints of racial
discrimination.

The sheer size of the protest, called by a Hindu rights group, represents a
political challenge for the government as it heads toward possible early
elections in the next few months.

Ethnic Indians from around the country swarmed into Kuala Lumpur for the
rally, despite a virtual lock-down of the capital over the previous three days
and warnings from police and the government that people should not take
part.

"Malaysian Indians have never gathered in such large numbers in this
way...," said organizer P. Uthaya Kumar, of the Hindu Rights Action Force
(Hindraf).

"They are frustrated and have no job opportunities in the government or the
private sector. They are not given business licenses or places in university,"
he said, adding that Indians were also incensed by some recent demolitions
of Hindu temples.

Riot police fired at the protesters with sustained volleys of tear gas and jets
of water laced with an eye-stinging chemical, but it took more than five hours
to finally clear the streets of downtown Kuala Lumpur, by then littered with
empty gas canisters.

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