FORTY SIX civil society groups will seek international help to pressure Putrajaya into providing answers into the disappearance of Pastor Koh and three other activists who have been missing for six months.

The coalition, which will be unveiled later today, believes that the authorities here are not doing enough to bring a closure to the cases and hopes that international intervention will finally shed some light on the disappearance of the four.

Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) will be heading the coalition to coordinate advocacy efforts and to look for information on the missing four.

For starters, the coalition will be seeking the help of the United Nations committee on ‘Enforced Disappearance’, Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch.

Coalition spokesman Thomas Fann said they need to take a more forceful stand and the term the coalition is using for those missing is “Enforced Disappreance”.

“It is a United Nations terminology that we are using to describe what happened to the missing four.”

(In international human rights law, a forced disappearance (or enforced disappearance) occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organisation or by a third party with the authorisation, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organisation).

“We have been monitoring the issue of the missing four informally as we are not part of any official group.

“In order to sustain our campaign, we decided to form an official group,” Fann told The Malaysian Insight.

Locally, the coalition will be lodging a report to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) on the police investigation thus far.

“The families of the victims have tried to get the police to act but they have been pretty flippant about it. For example the CCTV footage of Koh’s abduction was obtained by his family and friends. They (police) didn’t even go down to the ground to check.”

Koh was abducted from his vehicle while he was travelling along Jalan SS4B/10, Petaling Jaya on February 13.

The CCTV footage showed 15 men in three black SUVs carrying out the abduction that took a matter of seconds.

Koh’s car, a silver Honda Accord with the registration number ST 5515D, is still missing.

Fann also questioned why the police have not been forthcoming in giving updates on the investigations, as they had promised earlier to update the families regularly.

“As far as we know there have been no updates. If Koh is suspected of converting Muslims then the authorities should take action according to the laws available. We wonder if they are hiding something.”

The others who have gone missing are Pastor Joshua Hilmy and wife Ruth, whose disappearance was first highlighted in an Australian website, xyz.net.au, on February 23, 10 days after Koh’s abduction.

It was reported that the pastor of Malay descent, who was also a former Muslim, went missing on November 30, 2016.

Meanwhile, Amir a social activist, was part of the 1997 Mount Everest Malaysian expedition team. He went missing on the night of November 24, 2016, after he reportedly told his eldest daughter that he was going out.

Among those who are part of the coalition seeking international intervention is Bersih 2.0, Lawyers for Liberty, Sisters in Islam, Sarawak for Sarawakian and Perlis Hope.

The coalition will also be announcing a hotline number for those who have information on other victims that have gone missing. – May 5, 2017.