Poison to Shut-Up

More than 1,000 supporters of Malaysia's former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, have marched through the streets of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, in the biggest anti-government demonstration for months.

Shouting slogans calling for Mr Anwar's release from jail, the demonstrators were protesting against the politician's alleged poisoning while in detention.

The protesters assembled outside the national mosque and marched through the streets of the capital, their numbers swelling until riot police and water cannons arrived on the scene.

This was the biggest show of support for Anwar Ibrahim since a court sentenced him to six years in jail in April for misuse of power.

It was triggered by allegations that dangerously high levels of arsenic were found in the jailed politician's body, in what his family alleges was an attempt on his life.

The family say they smuggled a sample of his urine out of the country for testing in Australia under a fictitious name.
A year of legal proceedings against Mr Anwar have thrown up semen-stained mattresses, poisoned pen letters, a black eye and now arsenic.

In a statement, the opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang, said so many incredible things have transpired in the last twelve months that now the suggestion that Mr Anwar was poisoned is no longer unthinkable to substantial sections of the Malaysian public.
Opposition politicians have called for an independent inquiry into the incident, saying they're not satisfied with a police invesigation.

But speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of Asia Pacific leaders in New Zealand, Malaysia's trade minister, Rafidah Aziz, said Mr Anwar had deliberately timed the allegation of poisioning so as to seek as much political mileage as possible while the international gathering was taking place.
(picked from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/444614.stm Saturday, September 11, 1999 Published at 14:12 GMT 15:12 UK)