ISRAEL FREES SIX M'SIAN PEACE ACTIVISTS ABOARD SEIZED AID SHIP RACHEL CORRIE

AMMAN, June 6 (Bernama) -- Six Malaysian peace activists aboard the seized
Gaza-bound aid ship MV Rachel Corrie were released by Israel at the King Hussein
Bridge on the Israel-Jordan border at 5.20pm Malaysian time Sunday.

The Malaysian volunteers on the humanitarian aid vessel to Gaza consisted of
Parit Member of Parliament Mohd Nizar Zakaria, Perdana Global Peace Organisation
(PGPO) members Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal, Matthias Chang and Ahmad Faizal Azumu,
as well as two members of the press, Halim Mohamed and Mohd Jufri Judin from
private television station TV3.

MV Rachel Corrie, the last ship of the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to
Israeli-blockaded Gaza, was seized by the Israeli Defence Force at about 2.45pm
(Malaysian time) Saturday and was escorted to Ashdod Port in Israel.

The Malaysian peace activists were joined on board by former United Nations
Assistant Secretary General Dennis Halliday, Nobel Prize Laureate Mairead
Maguire, Derek and Jenny Graham from the Free Gaza Movement and documentary film
maker Fiona Thompson.

The aid mission was sponsored by PGPO, a Malaysian non-governmental
organisation.

The ship is named after an American woman who was killed by an Israeli military
bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003 while trying to protest a house demolition.
-- BERNAMA