Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) will be meeting with Sarawak government officials after concluding a one-week trip to the state to investigate allegations of human rights abuses against local indigenous tribes.

"We have made a number of observations and we still have to meet the Sarawak authorities to get the other side of the story," said commissioner Dr Salleh Mohd Nor today.

He said that Suhakam is preparing a report on their investigations but has yet to decide on any specific recommendations.

The human rights body is expected to discuss the report at a meeting on Nov 19.

Asked if there had been clear cases of human rights abuses in Sarawak, Salleh was non-committal.

"We have to study the situation vis-a-vis the legal implications because we have to deal with the land laws as well as the customary laws in Sarawak,' he said.

Bakun dam project

On Nov 28, Salleh was accompanied by fellow commissioners Dr Hirman Ritom Abdullah, Prof Chiam Heng Keng and a staff member to probe into complaints of human rights abuse against Sarawak natives, especially due to the construction of the controversial Bakun hydro-electric dam and other development projects.

According to environmental non-governmental organisations, the RM9 billion Bakun project is shrouded in secrecy and has displaced close to 10,000 indigenous people.

The project, which was proposed in the 80s was abandoned a few years later due to an economic recession. It was revived again in the early 90s but was stopped in 1997 in wake of a financial crisis. In 1999, the government revived the project.

The three-member Suhakam team met with about 200 natives near the Bakun dam site who have refused to be relocated.

The team also held a dialogue session with the Belaga District Officer who is in charge of resettled natives from the Bakun dam site.

According to Salleh, the team had also met with the developers of the project and described the meeting as "courteous".

"We needed to get some information to form the basis of our investigation, and they were very helpful," Salleh said.

Salleh also said that the team had spent five nights with the indigenous people in long houses and visited the regions of Ulu Baram, Niah, Ulu Bakun and Asap.