Tension subsides in Lawas after family members of slain youth call for calm over his murder
LAWAS: Family members of the 19-year-old Lun Bawang youth, Edwin Singa, from Long Lopeng who was killed in a fight appealed for calm and urged people here not let his death spark a communal unrest.
An uncle of the deceased appealed to the crowd who converged here for the last two days to let the authorities handle the case.
A group of Edwin’s friends, relatives and people from Long Lopeng, Sipitang and Ba Kelalan converged here over the last two days to demand justice for him.
Their presence raised tension here as the local Malay community felt threatened and reacted by gathering their own people and friends and relatives from nearby towns and villages to confront the Lun Bawang crowd.
The stand-off was tense and the police here had to rope in personnel from the General Operation Force from Limbang to help control the situation.
However, intervention from elected representatives, community and religious leaders and the assurance from the police chief here DSP Fauzilan Abdul Aziz that the murder would be investigated thoroughly and fairly calmed the situation.
He confirmed that 11 suspects have been already been arrested, including six on the night of incident when Edwin was stabbed to death with a screw-driver by a group of youths on motorcycles. Five were arrested on the following day, followed by another two on Monday noon.
“All the suspects are in police custody and efforts are made to collect evidence to complete investigations for prosecution of those who are guilty,” he said.
He also called for any eye witness to step forward to facilitate the investigation.
Tension here subsided further when a procession of 500 people declaring that the killing was purely criminal in nature and was not racially motivated went to police station here yesterday morning to hand over a memorandum asking the police to take stern action against criminal elements in the district.
Meanwhile, sources told the Borneo Post yesterday that the body of the deceased would be sent to Miri for postmortem to ascertain the actual cause of death.
Lawas MP Datuk Henry Sum Agong, who is in parliament, urged community leaders to help maintain security here and stop the people from taking the law in their own hands.
The MP also called on the police to step up patrol in hotspots where youths gathered in town or residential areas as a deterrent against crimes in the district.
Meanwhile, Ba kelalan state assemblyman Baru Bian, who is abroad issued a statement calling for calm and urging the people to let the police handle situation.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/09/26/appeal-for-peace-update/#ixzz27XLxJBTN
