Timber company official assaults Penans at blockade
By Patrick Lee, Free Malaysia Today
KUCHING: A group of Penans were reportedly assaulted after they defied a police order to dismantle a blockade leading to a timber site at Long Sebayang in Sarawak’s Upper Limbang region.
According to the Swiss-based activist group Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), at about 8pm last Sunday, a manager of Lee Ling Timber threatened one of the Penans with a parang.
The manager known only as Ah New, also punched one of Penans in the face and threatened the natives that he would bring in ‘more gangsters to the blockade site’, said a source, according to BMF.
The blockade was recently erected by the Penan, Lun Bawang and Tabun natives to prevent workers from entering a timber work site.
Three plainclothes police officers were present at the blockade site several hours earlier before the incident took place.
They were ferried in by vehicles belonging to the timber company. The officers subsequently instructed the natives to dismantle their blockade.
The activist group stated that despite lodging a police report on the incident at Limbang, no action was taken.
Lee Ling Timber, with its headquarters in Kuching, is a subsidiary of Quality Concrete Holdings Berhad (QCHB).
