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(New York) - Delegates to an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting on women in Manila on October 15-16 should express concern about human rights developments in Malaysia, Human Rights Watch said today.

The Manila meeting is focused on women, and Human Rights Watch urged the delegates to heed the call of seven major women's advocacy organizations in Malaysia who issued a press statement on October 3 condemning the ill-treatment by police of detained former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and those who demonstrated peacefully for political reform. The women's groups also called for an end to the use of the Internal Security Act, a law that allows for indefinite detention without charge or trial.

The annual APEC summit, attended by heads of state from eighteen countries, will take place in Kuala Lumpur next month.

Human Rights Watch also urged delegates to the APEC meeting in Manila to call for a lifting of restrictions on the civil rights of Dr. Wan Azizah, Anwar Ibrahim's wife. The delegates from countries throughout the region should offer Dr. Wan Azizah their active support during the APEC summit.

Since Anwar Ibrahim's detention under the ISA, his wife has been forbidden to address public meetings and is being investigated on possible sedition charges. On September 23 she was interrogated by the police. Malaysian officials have also threatened her with arrest for her statements last month expressing fear that Anwar might be injected with HIV while in custody to "prove" the government's charges of sodomy against him.

Dr. Wan Azizah, an ophthalmologist formerly employed in a government hospital, joined her husband at rallies prior to his arrest on September 20. She says she will continue to lead the reform movement he had launched, despite the Malaysian government's crackdown on dissent. Several of Anwar's colleagues remain in detention under the ISA. Anwar himself is due to go on trial, on charges of sodomy and corruption, on November 2.

Human Rights Watch has written to delegates attending the Manila ministerial meeting, urging them to speak out on Malaysian human rights violations.

Among those attending the meeting in Manila will be delegates from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Chile, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, and Japan.

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