Penan rapes: Police slammed
By Joseph Tawie, Malaysian Mirror
Penan Support Group, a coalition of 37 NGOs in the country, has condemned the Sarawak Deputy Commissioner of Police Hamza Taib for going after the whistle blowers of the Penan rape and sexual abuse rather than the perpetrators.
Hamza was sharply rebuked for painting the NGOs – who tried to help the victims – as troublemakers.
“We are not trying to teach the police how to do their work but by they are painting a bad image of themselves if they should go for the whistle blowers rather than on those who committed rape and sexual abuse of the Penan girls and women,” said PSG spokesman See Chee How.
“The police here should understand that it was the same lady who had lodged a police report at Bukit Aman in November last year that she had been raped.
“It is understood that the Bukit Aman police interviewed her three times and each interview was quite a lengthy one. The police have also taken statements from four persons in connection with the case.”
Intimidation
See was referring to Hamza’s recent statement that Sarawak police would question the four persons who allegedly tricked a Penan woman into concocting allegations that she was raped by timber workers.
Based on the report lodged by the 22-year old woman at the Long Lama Police Station in Baram last Saturday that she was first approached at her home by two men and two female reporters in October 2009, Hamza said the police here would record statements from the four.
Hamza also said that action would be taken if the police report lodged by the woman was false.
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