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Fwd: MGG - Arms Heist Continues To Roil Gov. By web aNtu 15/8/2000 7:25 am Tue

Subject: The Grik Arms Heist Continues To Roil The Government The cabinet cannot understand why the official conflicting and confusing accounts of the infamous arms heist in Grik, near the Malaysian border with Thailand, is disbelieved. So, first it orders the armed forces and the police to re-enact the heist on video to show the people on prime time TV that what it said happened happened. Then it ordered the defence minister to re-enact the heist, which he would before a blue ribbon political audience, which includes, unusually, opposition parties on Wednesday, 16 August 00. The armed forces and the police spent the past three weeks shooting the video, the first two attempts dismissed as not good enough. The final acceptable version is ready. This alone shows the government's difficulty in convincing the people, which is made worse by the recent Anwar conviction of nine years for s###my and the Abu Ha#san Omar imbroglio. The government insists the hundred weapons seized from a Wataniah battalion in Grik and one of its tactical forward posts were rushed to Bukit Jenelik, six to seven kilometres from Sauk village, which itself is about ten kilometres away from where the robbery took place. The defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, told reporters the re-enactment is to disprove the claim "that the whole Grik episode was a "sandiwara" "... that the robbers could not have carted away their ma#sive loot in just three four-wheel drive vehicles" He promised to prove that the 15 robbers did in fact load the three vehicles with 80 M-16 files, two Steyr AUG a#sault rifles, five M-16 M-16/203 grenade launchers, four general purpose machine guns, 26 bayonets, 54 flare-trip wires and pouches, 5000 rounds of ammunition of various calibre, ammunition magazines and 40 rounds of MMHE grenades and drove to Sauk village. The minister says it took 20 to 30 minutes. But he is disingenuous here. There were two raids in the morning of July 3. The fifteen men struck first, at 0230 on July 3, at the tactical forward outpost, taking 16 M-16 and a#sorted ammunition with them; then two hours later at the Wataniah battalion, from whence they robbed what looks like the armoury of one company. Normally, the separate companies constituting the battalion have their own separate armoury, and the number suggests only one company was hit. There is also some doubt if the first and second raids were carried out by the same group. You could cart these weapons, all 100 of them, in three Pajeros like goods for a pasar malam sale, but it would be cramped indeed, with the 15 men crowding in. But it is not the transport of these weapons that is at issue. It is the superhuman efforts of how it was readied for action within 90 minutes from the raid. The officials went to great lengths to prove that the heist was over by producing the weapons allegedly seized, but that raised more questions than answers. Since the second raid at least was done with some panache, with outriders accompanying the "officer" into the battalion headquarters, and apparently given some official recognition, loading these weapons into the Pajeros which already was loaded with weapons from the tactical forward outpost does seem unlikely. Besides, given that the 15 men had only 90 minutes of so before daybreak to rush to Sauk and carry the weapons six or seven kilometres away to Bukit Jenelik, something clearly is amiss. There is some doubt that the weapons presented to the public were indeed the ones that were stolen. There is also the nagging question of why the armed forces continued to be involved in recovering the weapons when the Inspector-General of Police no less had called the robbers criminals. That, in normal military practice, took the armed forces out of the picture, since that became a law-and-order issue. Instead, the field commander attacks the opposition and others for disbelieving the official version. Other nagging doubts are still unaddressed. Why did the 304 Wataniah battalion hand the weapons willingly and without a fight? Was the military command infiltrated before the heist so that the battalion was expecting the robbers to turn up, and gave up the weapons as ordered? If a well-armed battalion headquarters can be robbed with such ease, why is not the larger issue of security and effectiveness addressed? Army officers, retired, serving and military attaches, insist the three Pajeros could not carry the load and 15 men; it would need at least two, more likely three, three-tonne trucks. But more important issues than how these weapons were carried to Bukit Jenelik is at stake. That is not addressed. So, why is the government so stung as to want to prove the weapons could be carried in three Pajeros? It can, but in the circumstances it could not. Or does the government believe that once this is proven, the rest of its conflicting story on what took place be believed without a doubt? It is much more than this. The government insists the Al-Maunah group, which is accused of organising the heist, wanted to overthrow the government, and hence charged them with treason. (It is a matter of concern that someone who wages war against the King can, on conviction, get death of life imprisonment, while one charged with possessing bullets for a gun he had sold could get mandatary death as would one found with 15 gms of heroin). The government must act firmly. Many of those charged are, or were, UMNO members. If they had been charged under the Arms Act they had had to be sentenced to death. But the political fallout from 30 Malays sentenced to death raises the ante. So, it is treason, which paradoxically, carries a lighter sentence. The extraordinary precautions the government took when charging them underscored this, with the Attorney-General, in a well-crafted statement, explaining why he did what he did, senior police officers explaining to the families of those accused, and otherwise mollycoddled. No, the enactment of the Grik arms heist on Wednesday reveals a more serious credibility problem than the government would dare admit. M.G.G. Pillai pillai@mgg.pc.my

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