The Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has been barred from attending the opening of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) session in Yokohama, Japan, today, allegedly due to lobbying from the Malaysian delegation.

The Swiss-based NGO claimed that ITTO chairperson Rob Busink has confirmed to the group that he is under pressure to bar BMF from presenting its new book ‘Money Logging: On the Trail of the Asian Timber Mafia’.

“Despite a timely registration as observers in mid-October, the ITTO has not been able to make up its mind if the BMF would be admitted as observer due to strong resistance ‘from the highest level of the Malaysian government in Kuala Lumpur’.

“The current chairman of the ITTO, Rob Busink, was not able to say by when the ITTO would decide on BMF's observer status,” the group said in a statement today, adding that it has been locked out of the opening session.

It quoted Busink saying that the Malaysian government “reacted strongly” to BMF’s application to be an observer at the conference and its plans to display the book at the conference.

The book , written by BMF executive director Lukas Straumann, alleges corrupt practices by former Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family in the state’s timber industry and laundering of the proceeds.

The Taib family has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and Abdul Taib’s lawyer has moved to attempt to block the book from sale.

The book is due for its international launch at the ITTO's 50th session in Yokohama.

The organisation has already turned down BMF’s application last week to present the book during the conference, the group said, and it plans to display the book at the foyer of the conference instead.

“The Malaysian government’s intervention is an unprecedented and unacceptable attempt of censorship, which civil society cannot accept,” said Straumann.

“We demand from the ITTO that the BMF will be granted the observer status (during the sessions) and that my book can be freely displayed.”