The Penan community in Sarawak has filed a civil suit against the state government and logging giant Samling, claiming native customary rights (NCR) to 31,000 hectares of primary rainforest and farmlands.

The Association for the Peoples of the Rainforest said in a statement yesterday that five plaintiffs are claiming that they have native rights to the land located in the heart of Borneo in the name of the community of Long Lamai.

"The plaintiffs and their ancestors had been living as nomads roaming their tanah pengurip or NCR land since time immemorial," read the statement of claims in the representative action case led by Kuching-based lawyer Baru Bian.

"The plaintiffs have been deprived of their sources of food, fish, medicine, wildlife and other forest products which the plaintiffs need and are dependent upon for their daily subsistence.

"The plaintiffs have also been deprived of the sources of income from their lands, fruit trees, and other essential trees and crops," it stated further.

The statement of claim also states that the issuance of a timber licence without the Penan's consent had been "oppressive, arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional".

The Penan community of Long Lamai on the upper reaches of the Baram River is one of the biggest and oldest settlements in Sarawak. ( see map below )

Human rights violation

In 1955, the nomadic Penan group of the area under headman Belare Jabu was encouraged by the British colonial administration to settle at the current village site on the Balong River close to the Indonesian border.

Around the same time, Samling subsidiary Merawa Sdn Bhd was given a timber licence by the Sarawak government "without the consent of the plaintiffs who are the rightful owners of the land", the statement read.

The Long Lamai case is the second NCR case filed by the Eastern Penans after four neighbouring communities had filed a similar case in 1998 which is still pending.

The Sarawak government has refused to recognise any land rights of the indigenous Penan communities, which is widely regarded as a severe human rights violation.

The Samling group of companies and its subsidiary, Samling Strategic Corporation Sdn Bhd, control around 1.5 million hectares of forests in the state of Sarawak.

According to Forbes in 1995, the Samling group controlled by Yaw Teck Seng and his family has a net worth estimated at US$1.6 billion.

Some securities analysts view the logging giant as the countrýs largest and most aggressive fully integrated timber group.

The grouṕs' business overseas stretches to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the US and Canada.