More than 200 men, women and children from the Iban community around Lundu, Sarawak, have set up a new road blockade, in a bid to stop logging activities on their native customary rights land.

Representing three villages - Kampung Sg Kuali, Kampung Sg Chupin and Kampung Sg Keribang - they turned out on Sunday to set up the barrier.

The villagers dragged discarded logs across the road to create a barrier so that the company was not able to take freshly-cut timber out of the area.

In defiance, they also returned 30 crates of a soft drink that had been delivered to headman Dusin Anak Ahu, but which they deem to be a bribe. The crates were stacked at the top of the blockade.

A police team from Lundu town arrived to monitor the situation, but left the area soon after. Company representatives were also at the scene.

Their target was the Kuching-based Missi Gagah Snd Bhd, which has continued to operate in the area in breach of an agreement with the villagers after the first blockade on June 22 was dismantled.

The company had received a timber licence about a year ago, but logging activities only commenced in May.

On Monday, DAP parliamentarian for Bandar Kuching, Chong Chieng Jin, visited the villages and stopped at the blockade to lend moral support to the protesters.

Their ancestral land includes Gunung Kuali, one of the last remaining primary forests in Lundu, as well as water catchment areas.

The location also has strong spiritual significance. Village elders make an annual pilgrimage to shrines in the communal forests in Gunung Kuali to pray for peace, a good harvest and good health.

Five representatives of NCR land claimants from the three villages have filed a suit against the state government and a federal land agency. The case is pending a date for hearing in the Kuching High Court.