Malaysia is facing ethnic ire over death

R. Seetha died of multiple organ failure Wednesday, six days after she poisoned herself and her four children with weed killer. The children survived. Seetha's family has said she became depressed after her brother and four other suspected robbers were killed by police during a car chase on Nov. 7.

Ethnic Indian activists have long accused policedominated by the ethnic Malay Muslim majority — of using excessive force against Indians. Activists see the deaths of Seetha and her brother as the biggest symbols of police brutality in recent years.

Activists wanted to take a coffin bearing Seetha's body to Parliament on Thursday to demand that lawmakers look into the case, but scrapped the plan after the family took it to be cremated, said P. Uthayakumar, the leader of the Human Rights Party, whose members are ethnic Indians.

“It is the first case we know of where someone has committed suicide as a direct result of police targeting Indians,” Uthayakumar said.

Authorities have consistently rejected those accusations, but activists say Indians form a disproportionate number of suspects who are killed during police operations.

National police chief Musa Hassan said police acted appropriately in the case of Seetha's brother, saying he and the others shot first at police who were chasing them. They were accused of a spate of armed robberies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city.

“The job of the police is to protect the public. We do not protect criminals,” Musa said Wednesday. “They should surrender if they do not want to die.”

Government concerns that the emotionally charged case could inflame anger became public after a Tamil-language newspaper last week said it had received a letter from the Home Ministry warning its coverage of the shooting would “provoke the Indians in the country and could affect the country's harmony.”

However, activists say the case carries too much emotional weight to be forgotten. The Web site of Uthayakumar's party put up a video clip showing Seetha's husband brushing away tears and caressing her face as he stood by her hospital bed shortly before she died.

Ethnic Indians comprise about 8 percent of Malaysia's 28 million people. Many of them are among the country's poorest citizens and are increasingly accusing the government of discrimination, including a dearth of financial assistance and occasional demolition of illegally built Hindu temples. The government denies any bias.

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