KUALA LUMPUR, June 22 — Police took in over a dozen environmental activists seeking to shutter the Lynas rare earths plant in Gebeng, Pahang this afternoon, including one nicknamed “Superman”, PKR’s Chua Tian Chang said today.
Those apprehended included Wong Tack, who heads the environmental group Himpunan Hijau, an Kiwi activist called Natalie Lowrey, and Teluk Intan DAP chief Hew Kuan Yau, nicknamed “Superman”, Chua said.
“The police gave them 10 minutes to disperse, but they decided they’d just sit down quietly, and then the police proceeded with the arrest,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Popularly called Tian Chua, the PKR vice-president had joined the 300km march from Kuala Lumpur to Gebeng in a bid to shut down the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) that started last Monday, with the 800 to 1,000-strong group arriving at the refinery this afternoon.
The Star Online reported that Kuantan OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Aziz Salleh had ordered the protesters to disperse within 10 minutes.
According to Chua, Wong and about 10 or 11 other protesters were arrested for ignoring the dispersal order.
Chua, who is also Batu MP, added that a minor scuffle broke out 20 minutes earlier and the police had taken in four others.
The lawmaker said the protesters were now gathering at the Kuantan district police headquarters.
Yesterday, the Kuantan police obtained a last-minute court order from a Magistrate Court yesterday that prohibits anybody from being within a 20-metre radius from Lamp.
In September 2012, Malaysia’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board granted Lynas (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd a temporary operating licence, which came with several conditions.
The board’s director-general at the time, Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz Adnan, said the licence would be for a two-year period ending on September 2, 2014.
Last December, the board said Lynas had submitted last July the results of its research on recycling its waste for commercial purposes, but added that further study was required.
The board confirmed that it approved the firm’s plans for a permanent disposal facility as it had met the necessary requirements, but said there was no need yet to identify a site for the facility.
The board also said then that it was monitoring the operations of the Lynas plant “round the clock”, stating that it found the radiation levels onsite and offsite the plant to be within regulatory limits and that its operations were “safe and under control”.
* An earlier version of this story erroneously referred to Natalie Lowrey as an Australian. The error has since been corrected. Malay Mail Online apologises for the unintentional mistake.
