By
The Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Police fired tear gas, swung batons and sprayed chemical-laced water from trucks yesterday to break up Malaysia's biggest anti-government protest in recent months.
Led by the country's top opposition leaders, thousands of people blocked a major expressway linking Kuala Lumpur, the capital, to a neighboring state and shouted slogans against Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has ruled Malaysia for 19 years.
More than 30 people were arrested in the protest. Demonstrators called for greater democracy and the release of Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's imprisoned former deputy prime minister.
Ibrahim's 1998 arrest, and subsequent conviction for corruption and sodomy, triggered unprecedented street protests against Mahatir's authoritarian government. Ibrahim has said the charges against him were trumped up to block his attempts to bring democratic reform to Malaysia.
Opposition activists have tried several times to hold public rallies in support of Anwar, but police have thwarted them either by using force to break up gatherings or by scaring away supporters. Police have dubbed all gatherings against Mahathir, Asia's longest-serving leader, as illegal.
About 1,000 people had gathered for the rally early yesterday, but as the police started to move in, the crowd appeared to swell and soon officers faced several parallel protests that blocked the expressway.
Police chased protesters into jungles alongside the expressway. Officers forcibly removed some participants from their vehicles, beat them, herded them into police trucks and drove them away, witnesses said.
A policeman was injured in the head after he was attacked by protesters, police said.
Officers snatched cameras and film from several news photographers who were taking pictures of the scuffles, the national news agency Bernama reported.
Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, the Justice Party head, was in the front of the protest, seated in a wheelchair. Her aides said she had an injured ankle.
She was joined by Democratic Action Party chief Lim Kit Siang and Fadzil Noor, the president of the fundamentalist Pan Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, and Syed Hussien Ali, who heads the Malaysian People's Party. The four parties are in an anti-government coalition.
"Malaysians are showing their stand on democracy. They also want fairness and justice for Anwar," Azizah told reporters during the protest.
Azizah's aides hoisted her from her wheelchair over the divider of the expressway and into a waiting car as other opposition leaders also fled the police onslaught.
Police said about 30 people were arrested, but opposition activists claimed the figure was higher. Late Saturday, at least six members of the Justice Party, suspected of organizing the rally, were arrested, local human rights group Suaram said in a statement.
Anwar was convicted of charges stemming from allegations that he sodomized his family's former driver, a crime in this predominantly Muslim nation.
