'Sexual abuse of Penan women': Company in the dark

Interhill Logging Sdn Bhd, one of the two logging companies mired in allegations of employees sexually abusing Penan women and girls, said that it has not received any report on the matter.

Its spokesperson, who identified himself only as 'Mr Kiu', explained that “normally the camp managers at the operations offices would report to the head office” in Miri in the case of any misconduct.

“But so far, we don’t have any information on the matter,” he said when contacted.

Infrequent communication between operations offices and the headquarters was common due to the lack of infrastructure in the interiors, he added.

“Whatever it is, we will investigate this further,” he stressed.

Kiu was responding to claims by rainforest communities advocacy group Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) that loggers were frequenting Penan settlements in the Middle Baram area ‘looking for women’.

"The company workers are based in logging camps in the region and are usually drunk when they arrive at the villages," said BMF, which has done a study on the issue.

"When we hear their off-road vehicles coming, we just leave everything as it is and flee into the forest," said BMF stated, quoting a Penan source.

“They come on an almost weekly basis but the situation is worse during school holidays when they know that the students are back in the settlements,” added the source.

The Swiss-based NGO claimed that these abuses have resulted in pregnancies.

"In other cases, school transports operated by company vehicles had been arranged in such a way that schoolgirls had to stay overnight at a logging camp, where they were abused."

Distance deters police reports

The second Miri-based logging company implicated in this issue could not be reached for a response.

Borneo Resources Institute’s (BRI) Sarawak coordinator Raymond Abin said that he too has been informed by Penans of the abuses, pregnancies and ‘forced marriages’ - for some time now.

“But perhaps the operations offices of the logging companies do not inform the head office of the matter,” said Abin when contacted today.

“Even if they are aware, the most that they would do when their workers are involved is to transfer them to other operations offices,” he added.

He said due to the distance between the interior settlements and closest police stations, police reports are rarely lodged.

“Even if they lodge a police report, will the police act on it?” he asked in reference to long standing complaints of the police acting in favour - and sometimes on behalf - of the state-backed logging companies.