page_title: 2007 Bersih rally
section_title: Police's response
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Bersih rally / Responses / Police's response
caption_attribution_description: The FRU riot police units were placed at various places around Kuala Lumpur. A unit was on active duty at the Masjid Negara. (REFEASED) http://kl.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/metblogs_reporting_on_bersih_r.phtml
context_page_description: The 2007 Bersih rally was a rally held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 10 November 2007. The aim of this walk was to campaign for electoral reform. It was precipitated by allegations of corruption and discrepancies in the Malaysian election system that heavily favour the ruling political party, Barisan Nasional, which has been in power since Malaysia achieved its independence in 1957.
  Much of the publicity for the rally was distributed through online media and blogs. Initially, the organisers planned to have a gathering point at Dataran Merdeka square. However, it was later revealed that this was a red herring to distract the police. The locations of the four gathering points were only released the day before the protests by word of mouth, mobile phones and emails.
  Consequently, the rally began with gatherings of people at four locations: Sogo department store, Masjid India, Masjid Negara and Pasar Seni. These four groups of people combined into a single group on their march towards the palace gates to hand over a memorandum to the King demanding electoral reform. Early estimates put the number of attendees between 10,000 and 40,000.
context_section_description: Hours before the rally was due to occur, thousands of police were stationed around Merdeka Square, and traffic coming into Kuala Lumpur had to pass through numerous security checkpoints, some saying checkpoints began at Pagoh, Johor and Kemaman, Terrengganu. This created widespread traffic congestion throughout the entire Klang Valley area. Although it was claimed by the government that the actual rally was the cause of the jam, other sources contradicted this, stating that the numerous barricades and roadblocks set up by police officers were the direct source of the congestion.
  Authorities also made changes to the train schedule in an attempt to make it more difficult for people to reach the rally area. Trains on the Kelana Jaya LRT line coming into the city from Kelana Jaya, which normally stop at Pasar Seni and Masjid Jamek, instead bypassed those stations, going from KL Sentral directly to Dang Wangi Station. Passengers were not given any warning of this and many did not realise they would not be able to stop at these stations until the train was already on its way to Dang Wangi or Sentral.
  During the rally, the police responded by firing chemical laced water cannons and tear gas at rally participants at the Masjid Jamek and Bandaraya LRT meeting points. 245 people were arrested according to the local daily newspapers The Star, owned by MCA, one of the coalition parties of the current ruling government. Independent sources, however, quoted only 34 people were arrested and released the night later.
  Purportedly, the organisers of BERSIH had ordered participants to be cooperative and the assembly was to remain peaceful at all times.
caption: The riot police units were placed at various places around Kuala Lumpur. A unit was on active duty at the Masjid Negara.
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