A month ago Mr Hosseni was caught by the police without his papers and sent to Lenggeng

A month ago, Mr Hosseni was caught by the police without his papers and sent to Lenggeng. Since then no one has been able to visit him.Mr Hosseni has written to a friend complaining of illness, a lack of water for bathing and about guards who demand bribes even for a drink of water. “We have tickets to go to Australia next week,” says his friend. “I am afraid they will take him to the airport and put him on a plane to Iran. There he will be killed.”Local people whose homes overlook the Semenyih detention centre confirm many of the allegations in Tenaganita’s report. “You could see through the fence when they first brought them in,” said one woman.

“They would make them stand in the sun and beat them with batons Sometimes the sticks had barbed wire around them. “Their relatives who were visiting would complain about having to pay bribes to the guards.”It was at Semenyih on 26 March that the abuse reached its climax. Early that morning, Malaysian riot police entered camps across the country and began transporting their occupants to ports for repatriation. Semenyih contained several hundred detainees from Aceh, in Sumatra, where Islamic guerrillas have been fighting for independence from Indonesia since the 1950s. A riot broke out, and in the course of the fighting, hundreds of Acehnese break out through the fence. Nasir was among them, but was shot, captured and beaten up.According to the official count, eight men from Aceh and one policeman were killed. Local people say the shooting began at 2am and went on for more than six hours.

“I cannot believe such a small number were killed,” said one local man.. FRANTIC efforts to buy off the French were under way last night to prevent the historic summit on European economic and monetary union from being overshadowed by a furious row over who will run the single currency. Tony Blair as summit chairman will try to steer a compromise today which ensures that the job goes for eight years to the Dutch Central Banker Wim Duisenberg, but allows the French to walk away with some grace.
French President Jacques Chirac was officially clinging to his demand last night that a Frenchman – not the majority-backed Dutch candidate – should head the future European Central Bank.The bank, to be established in July, will set interest rate policy for the euro zone and its president will hold one of the most powerful positions in Europe. The French European Affairs Minister, Pierre Moscovici, said the eight-year term of office should be split de facto and that France should be in charge at the bank when euro notes and coins go into circulation in 2002.Amid mounting concern, particularly in Germany, that splitting the term of office would rob the post of independence and undermine the credibility of the euro, a number of sweeteners for the French were being discussed.The presidency of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development could now go to a Frenchman, while the European Commission signalled a major concession to the French in a long-running dispute over Credit Lyonnais, the troubled French bank. Jacques Santer, the European Commission president, indicated that the commission may not block a French government move to channel millions of pounds in state aid to the bank.The French were also handed another olive branch as Germany backed away from a bid to tighten budgetary discipline for the “in” countries. France, faced with a massive and growing unemployment problem, had objected to German demands that single currency countries freeze public spending and commit themselves to doing so in writing, for the rest of this year.The text of a declaration which was set to be agreed by EU finance ministers last night omitted the key passages which the French had rejected.Failure to settle the ECB row today would send a damaging signal to the financial markets. Central bankers are nervous at the prospect of the key job falling victim to political influence.

An initial compromise was for the eight-year term of office of the president to be halved, with the French candidate, Jean-Claude Trichet, taking over from the Dutchman midway through 2002.But this would be in flagrant contravention of the Maastricht treaty and would invite claims that the custodian of the euro was not independent. The European Commission repeated its view yesterday that the term of office could not be split under the rules of the treaty.Another option would be for a gentleman’s agreement allowing Mr Duisenberg to retire although this would not be a formal agreement.One of the main obstacles to a deal along these lines is that the Dutch government, facing elections next week, is reluctant to be seen to have caved in to French pressure.Tony Blair was in the Netherlands last night attempting to agree a strategy with the Dutch Prime Minister, Wim Kok.. It would be only the second time in normal conditions that the National Front had won victory by a full majority of voters: ie with more than 50 per cent of the vote.. In the first round of the election last Sunday, the far-right candidate, Cendrine Le Chevallier, wife of the National Front mayor of the town, topped the poll with 39.5 per cent of the vote. The candidate of the centre- right UDF alliance was eliminated with only 22 per cent of the vote.
Ms Le Chevallier, seeking to replace her husband, who was disqualified for infringing campaign finance rules, needs to attract less than half of the centre-right vote to beat her Socialist opponent and take the seat in the run-off tomorrow.This is not guaranteed: there was a very low turn-out in the first round last Sunday (only 45 per cent) and a somewhat different cast of electors may take part this weekend. Some local and national leaders of the traditional right have been urging their voters to block the Front at all costs: others have been silent or neutral, or have, implicitly, favoured a far-right victory.The Toulon by-election has, therefore, confirmed the utter disarray of the French centre-right parties, split raggedly down the middle after the regional elections in March in a dispute over unauthorised local alliances with the Front.Even though Toulon is well-established as a National Front town – the most racist town France, it is sometimes said – a victory for Ms Le Chevallier would be a substantial coup for the extreme right in France.