Make cases stick, authorities told

About 200 police and soldiers yesterday took part in a workshop organised by the police legal affairs chief, Pol Lt-General Amporn Charujinda, to look into the inadequate nature of police work in the restive region.

Hundreds of suspected insurgents are detained in military camps and local jails but most are acquitted when their cases go to trial.

Kitja Ali-ishoh, who heads the Muslim Attorneys Centre (MAC), says the Attorney General could do more to help by demanding that police compile more solid evidence that would hold up in court.

Police have used threats against suspects along with lengthy periods of detention before cases make it to court, Kitja said.

Amporn said officers had to do more in distinguishing sound and unsound evidence, as well as prioritise their work in evidence gathering in order to make cases stick.

Extremely few eyewitnesses co-operate with the police.

Authorities say many help the insurgents by destroying physical evidence.

Many attacks against security forces and civilians are carried out in front of local residents, many of whom share the insurgents' resentment towards the state even though they may not agree with the militants' brutal tactics.

The ongoing violence in the region has claimed more than 3,000 lives, mostly Malay Muslims, in this restive region since January 2004.