M'SIAN EMBASSY ASSURES PROTESTERS OF SWIFT ACTION OVER MAID'S DEATH

By Mohd Nasir Yusoff

JAKARTA, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian embassy here Wednesday explained
to protesters at its gates the government was acting swiftly to prosecute the
Malaysian employer of an Indonesian maid who had died following alleged physical
abuse.


Head of Chancery Mohd Norhisyam Mohd Yusoff told about 30 protesters from
Migrant Care - the Indonesian association of migrant workers -- that the
employer couple had been arrested.

He handed to the demonstrators a copy of the statement issued in Kuala
Lumpur by Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman, in which the minister had
expressed the Malaysian government's condemnation of the abuse and said it was
conducting an immediate investigation to prosecute the offenders.

The maid, Mantik Hani, 36, from East Java, died at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah
Hospital in Klang, Selangor, on Monday after she had been admitted there a week
earlier.

Mohd Norhisyam told Bernama he told the protesters, who demonstrated
peacefully for about an hour, that even the Malaysian people had condemned the
abuse of Mantik and wanted the offenders to be severely penalised.

-- BERNAMA