While some 70 villagers who are against the construction of the Baram dam are manning a barricade to stop workers from entering the area in Ulu Baram, another group of 60 Baram villagers held a protest in Miri yesterday against the construction of the controversial dam.

 

The demonstration was carried out in front of the Forestry Department Office at Pelita Tunku in the city centre. Most of the protesters are Baram folk based in Miri.

 

Joined by members of Gerakan Anak Sarawak (Gasak) or Sarawak People Movement, the villagers later handed over a memorandum to the Miri Division Forest Department and the Miri Police Department.

 

In the memorandum, the protestors demand, among others, that environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies be carried out in the said area as required by the law, that the authorities respect the rights of the indigenous people and their NCR land, and that the police and Forest Department remove the barrier that they have placed on the road to the dam site to stop villagers from entering their own native customary rights land.

 

They also want the police and forest officers, who have been guarding the barrier, to leave the area.

 

In addition, the villagers called on the director of forests to revoke the permit allowing loggers to harvest timber at the proposed dam site and to halt the proposed construction of an access road to the dam.

 

Gasak president Abun Sui, who is also the land right lawyer and a member of the Sarawak Indigenous Lawyers Alliance (Sila), elaborated on some of the demands.

 

"Under the law, a timber licence is subject to native customary rights of the people living in the area," he said, pointing out that the authorities should not use their power to bully the natives.

 

Barricade re-erected

 

Meanwhile, Save Rivers Sarawak Network (Save Rivers) president Peter Kallang said the villagers of Long Keseh, who are against the Baram dam, reinstated the barricade erected on the access road to the dam site after the police and forest personnel dismantled it.

 

In retaliation, the villagers removed the barrier placed by the Forestry Department, which was meant to secure the area for the logging company.

 

The villagers then built their own barricade at the location to ensure that illegal logging and construction of the access road are stopped.

 

But the police and forest personnel dismantled the barricade, only for it to be erected again by the villagers.

 

"Each time the removal of blockade happened, the blockaders re-erected it," said Kallang, adding that the villagers had expressed deep disappointment with the action of the police.