A group of human rights NGOs have called on the police bring an end to crime, instead of intimidating the indigenous people of Sarawak at the site of the planned Baram Dam.

The NGOs, including Suaram, SAVE Rivers, Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS), International Rivers, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), and Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) said that the police were protecting the developers.

The police were also preventing the local residents access to their customary lands located within the site designated for the proposed Baram Dam.

“The role of the police is to stop crime. The extraction of logs in the area of the proposed Baram Dam is a crime because the lands belong to the people of Long Kesseh and Na’ah.

“The police should evict the loggers from the site because it is the timber company that is trespassing and carrying out illegal logging,” SAVE Rivers chairperson Peter Kallang said today.

According to the NGOs, the police and forestry personnel, alongside the developers in the area, were preventing the local residents from accessing their lands  and have remained encamped at the area since Oct 27.

“The residents of Baram are seeking to protect the collective heritage of all Sarawakians; to keep the forests and rivers intact for future generations.

“Yet, the result is that they are now being subjected to intense surveillance and intimidation,” JOAS president Thomas Jalong, who lives in Baram, said.

“The police and the Sarawak Forestry Corporation have set up a makeshift gate at the site to the proposed dam, blocking indigenous people from accessing their customary lands. In doing so, they appear to be backing the claims of MM Golden to the site,” Jalong ( left ) said.

The group also slammed the police force for taking sides in the tussle, and to side with the  loggers and developers instead of the people who own the customary land.

“We question why the police are evidently taking sides with the logging company and assisting in unlawful land-grabbing, contravening the people’s rights as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

“They are essentially attempting to force the indigenous peoples, who have lived at the proposed dam site since time immemorial, to abandon their customary land,” said Suaram representative Serene Lim.

The Baram Dam is to be built by state-owned Sarawak Energy Bhd. If the megaproject estimated to cost at least RM4 billion goes ahead, eager contractors, many with close family ties to former chief minister and current governor Abdul Taib Mahmud, are standing in line for the jobs.

Sarawak Energy claims the dam will displace "6,000 to 8,000" people , but opponents say 20,000 indigenous people will lose their homes.

Sarawak Energy and the state government insist they have consulted natives affected by the dam and that they agree with the project. They have also dismissed the dissenters as "a minority" group.