For thirty years the nomads of the Borneo jungles – the Penan – have battled to save the forests they have roamed for hundreds of years from the loggers. They alone of all the tribal groups have refused all offers of compensation from logging companies for access to their territory and for 30 years, have mounted blockade after blockade to maintain the land for their hunting and gathering.

But their cause may have suffered a fatal blow with the mysterious death last year of a formidable headman, Kelesau Naan, the leader of the tiny village of Long Kerong. Kelesau’s skeleton was found in the jungle in December last year, two months after he disappeared in what some see as suspicious circumstances.

kelesau murdered penan leader sarawak 100708 03 Kelesau ( left, with his wife ) was not the first opponent of logging to go missing. Swiss environmentalist, Bruno Manser, who lived with the Penan for several years and helped publicise their cause, disappeared without trace in Sarawak in May 2000. Manser, a drop-out medical student and artist, has become a near legendary figure, twice escaping from police, once by jumping off an embankment into the Magoh River to evade an ambush. It is generally believed that he is dead.

Kelesau Naan had been a thorn in the side of the loggers for many years. The lead signatory in the 1998 Malaysian High Court Penan land claim, the quietly spoken man in his 70s, commanded great respect from the community. On 23 October last year, after working with his wife, Uding Lidem, at their small rice paddy cut in the forest near the Segita River, two hours walk from his village, Kelesau said he was going out to check his traps.

He suggested she pack their gunny paddy and they and their sick son, who had a fever, would return to their village in the evening. He never returned.

Uding assumed that he had got caught up with something but became worried in the evening.

By morning Kelesau had still not returned but she felt she could not leave as she needed to look after her son. The following morning she knew she had to go.

Shortly after setting off she met Parry Dok, a Penan man from Long Kerong, who was out hunting. Parry raced back to Long Kerong to report the missing man and a widespread search involving villagers from across the region began.

Initially they searched the mountain areas where they thought Kelesau would have set his traps. They used dogs and extended the search to every possible track and trail. Finding no trace, Kelesau’s son, Nick Kelesau said they became certain that he had not lost his way or been killed by animals. They were convinced he had been killed and his body hidden.

There could be no better people to search for someone in the jungle than the Penan. One anthropologist who spent two years with them found they were much more successful hunters than their neighbours, who often asked them to lead hunting expeditions.

In hunting with dogs the Penan were twice as productive as the Kenyah in taking prey. The Penan averaged 15.9 kills per person while the Kenyah only got 2.8 kills each.

Body found

kelesau naan murdered penan head 040108 skull Two months after his disappearance Kelesau’s skeleton was found. Some clothing and a woven bag provided the first hint – then the bones and his skull. A forearm was broken. It could have been an accident, but on Jan 2, 2008 Malaysiakini reported that the villagers suspected foul play.

Some villagers thought the bone was cut with a sharp object. Others wondered how they could have missed the body when it was at a spot frequently passed by Penan in their travels between villages. How could they not have smelt it?

Nick Kelesau said it was murder and he speculated that Kelesau had been killed and thrown into the river, with something heavy placed on top of the body so that it wouldn’t float. These statement stung the logging company - Samling, just listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange and trying to build its reputation as a respectable international operation.

One man was particularly annoyed, according to a Penan, Lim Hon Guan, who lives in the coastal city of Miri where Samling is based. Hon says a Chinese trader Kho Thien Seng - commonly known as Sio - from the village of Long Akah, was very angry about the Malaysiakini report.

“This statement is bull****.” Sio told him. “Why did Nick do this to Samling?” Hon cannot remember the exact date but he says in a car in Miri in front of the post office at about 4 p.m. Sio produced two letters and asked him to sign them.

Sio told him the first was an acknowledgement of receipt of RM500 he gave Hon as a Christmas present from Samling. The second he was told was a thank-you to Samling. Hon did not read the letters.

Perhaps because he is the most accessible Penan, Hon is often asked to act as a go-between with Penan villagers and he agreed to fly to the Mulu National Park with Sio to see Nick, who worked there as a security guard. There Sio produced two letters and asked Nick to sign them.

Nick has a detailed recollection of what happened at Mulu airport on January 10, 2008. He confirms that he signed one letter -- a letter of appreciation thanking Samling for helping him travel from Mulu to Long Kerong shortly after his father had been reported missing.

But he point blank refused to sign the other – a brief, typed two paragraph six line statement saying that he did not suspect foul play in the death of his father.

Sign the letter

penan forest sarawak 100708 01 Nick says Sio told him “I have read the news in the internet, you cannot make those allegations like those NGOs. What you have done by helping to publish those news in the internet, you are allowing yourself to be made use of by them for their own gains. They care only of their own interests.”

Sio then asked how much the people had spent in the search efforts and the funeral and offered to pay. “How many bags of cement? I will arrange everything tomorrow. If I ask from Samling, they will pay for all the expenses.”

“You help to sign this letter. It is nothing. I will pay you RM20,000. Just help me to sign it, I give you RM25,000. Tomorrow I go to Samling to take the money, and I will bank the money straight into your account. I will ask Lim Khua Khuan [Hon] to bank in the money into your account”

Although RM25,000 is a huge amount of money for Penan people who have low cash income, Nick still refused to sign. Failing in his mission Sio returned to Miri and the next day approach Hon and produced a letter with Hon’s signature on it as a witness to a statement by Nick that he did not suspect any foul play in the death of his father. Sio asked Hon to sign for Nick’s signature.

Hon refused. He says it was only then that he realised that his second signature was on a letter as a “witness’’ to Nick’s “statement”. Later Hon says in his presence, and at Sio’s instigation a Malay man, Sidi, tried to trace Nick’s signature on to the letter. Hon was then asked to say that Nick had signed the letter. He says he responded that he would not. “I’m a Christian and I tell the truth.’’

Both Nick and Hon have made statements to the police. The investigating inspector, Chen told me by phone (5 June 2008) that police were investigating the matter but he could not say when he would report on an outcome.

Sio, who has been described by some as a “friendly” man and “a good operator” has not responded to messages left for him and repeated attempts to speak to him by phone. Samling’s initial response to questions was that Sio was not, and never had been an “employee” of Samling.

The company said he was not contracted or asked to act on its behalf. He was a Penan-speaking trader who bought gahuru - the valuable incense wood - from the Penan. But there was no question in the minds of those in the Penan communities, who have been dealing with Sio in recent times, that he was acting as a Samling agent.

Community events

penan forest sarawak 100708 02 During the period when Kelasau Naan was missing, Sio, accompanied by a Samling employee, Martin Hamilton, visited the Penan kampongs of Long Benalih, Long Sait and Long Kerong, seeking the communities’ agreement to lift the logging road blockade at Long Benalih and enable the Samling road to go through to Long Lellang. The pair made two visits, flying in by helicopter on November 19 and November 21.

In exchange for agreement to the logging road, a number of community projects were planned, to be financed by Samling. Pressed on the question of Samling’s relationship with Sio, the company’s Chief Operating Officer James Ho, said Samling wanted to resolve the stalemate with the Penan. Sio had been trading with the Penan for years and Samling believed he was well liked by them so “when he offered to help us we agreed to it. Our action was sincere and nothing sinister as believed by others,” Ho said.

But Hon says he attended a meeting with Sio and James Ho and a senior Samling officer introduced as, Yong, and Martin Hamilton. He said they talked in a room at Samling’s office in Miri.

‘Did you see Nick sign this one?” they asked.

“I did see Nick sign the appreciation letter, yes, but the other one, I don’t know [about],” he said.

Hon’s English is not perfect but over three interviews his story was consistent and supported the statements by Nick Kelesau that Nick never signed any letter saying that he did not suspect foul play in the death of his father.

Part Two: 'I'm here. I'm just inside the river'

PAUL MALONE, 60, has been a journalist for over 30 years in Australia. The above article which first appeared in the Canberra Times is based on his trip to research logging in the upper reaches of the Baram River in Borneo which he first visited in 1974.