More Penans join blockade as Suhakam cancels visit

comments     Chendang Hollis     Published     Updated

More Penans have joined the blockade against a timber company which they claimed has encroached into their community's land in Sarawak.

Penans from the Upper Baram region in the Miri Division reached the blockade site at Long Benali and Ba Pengaran last Wednesday to stop the logging operations by the Shin Yang Timber Company.

The blockade, which began on July 5, was set up after attempts to negotiate with the timber camp manager failed.

It is learnt that the manager had told the Penans that they had no right to claim the forest as their Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, and that the company had obtained the licence to operate in the disputed areas.

The timber company had also called in the police to the dispute site who had threatened the protesters with arrest.

Headman Bilong Oyoi and Penan chief Aya Lunding said through a statement issued by Keruan, an NGO working with the Penan community, that the blockade would continue until the dispute was settled.

Both leaders appealed to the government and the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) to help in settling the dispute and to ensure the police acted professionally.

"The police should not arrest us when irresponsible logging is encroaching onto our NCR lands. Instead, the police should truly live up to its ' Cekap dan Betul ' (competent and correct) slogan." said Oyoi and Lunding.

Suhakam visit cancelled

Meanwhile, Suhakam has cancelled a planned dialogue with the Penan community in Baram which was scheduled for July 17-18.

Last November, headman Bilong Oyoi with a few other representatives from the Penan community met with Suhakam commissioners after formally lodging a complaint about the violations of human rights faced by the people of Upper Baram.

Suhakam had then promised to visit to the affected areas.

In an e-mail message last Tuesday, the human rights secretariat said that "due to logistical problems, Dr Muhammad Hirman Ritom Abdullah and other Suhakam commissioners will not be able to make the visit."

Suhakam has also cancelled a planned meeting scheduled for last Thursday with the Ulu Niah Iban communities of Rumah Busang and Rumah Bali who had similarly lodged a complaint with the commission against human rights violation arising from land disputes.

Ten people from Rumah Busang and Rumah Bali, the two Iban longhouse communities in Ulu Niah in Miri Division, are still awaiting judgment from the Miri High Court on murder charges against them when four plantation contractor personnel died after a clash with the natives.

They have been in remand since early September 1999.

The longhouse communities have been defending their NCR lands from being encroached by an oil palm plantation company since the early 1980s.



Malaysiakini
news and views that matter


Sign In