The Sarawak police chief has rubbished a report by the Penan Support Group’s (PSG) alleging the incidence of more rape and sexual abuse cases among Penan women.

NONE Commissioner of police Mohmad Salleh said the cases are really old and that none of the survivors had lodged police reports in the first place.

“All these cases were 10 years ago. How do you expect us to dig up all this information?” he said.

“When it happened earlier (in 2008), we also spent one whole month in the interiors of Baram and collected 72 statements. But none of (them) were the recent (cases),” he said, referring to Swiss NGO Bruno Manser Foundation’s report.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that Mohmad also became visibly agitated when asked about the case.

NONE “When I am asked about this, I become emotional. The police don’t hide facts. We have tried everything we could but the victims refuse to cooperate.

“The question of hiding the truth does not arise. This is a rape case. It involves the future and dignity of others. Do you really think that the police will investigate nonchalantly?”

Speaking to reporters at the state police headquarters this morning, he urged the survivors to inform the police directly of such incidents.

“If the district offices ignore them, they can come to me directly,” he said.

He also lambasted PSG, claiming it has “politicised” the issue to tarnish the image of the Sarawak police.

NONE “If the issue is being used for political mileage, please stop it. If they really want to help them, please tell them to lodge a police report instead of (taking) it to the Parliament and telling people that the police are inefficient,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) refused to comment on the issue when contacted.

Commissioner Detta Samen, who is tasked with overseeing human rights adherence in Sarawak said the complaint had been lodged “one or two years ago”.

“So with the new report, I don’t know if they are highlighting new or old cases,” he said before declining to answer more questions.

‘Authorities failed to act’

PSG - a coalition of 36 NGOs - released its report ‘Wider Context of Sexual Exploitation of Penan Women and Girls in Middle and Ulu Baram, Sarawak’ in Parliament yesterday, detailing the distressing ordeal of the Penan women and the community.

NONE The report claimed that seven more Penan women had come out to reveal their alleged sexual abuse in the hands of loggers, with some saying they became pregnant after being raped.

They also highlighted the failure of authorities to respond to the shocking findings of a national ministerial task force made several months ago.

The cabinet initially kept the task force report under wraps, until PKR Women’s chief Zuraida Kamaruddin pressured the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to finally make it public last September.

The ministry's task force had confirmed cases of loggers sexually abusing Penan girls and women, including a 10-year-old schoolgirl, but did not know the actual number of the cases.

Investigations at the time seemingly reached a dead end, and deputy inspector-general of police Ismail Omar closed the case due to lack of evidence and cooperation from the victims.

At the same time, many in the state government including Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud had lambasted the claims as exaggerated.

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