Blockade Update

By Bruno Manser Fonds

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends,

we have today received further information from the blockading Penan communities in Middle Baram, Sarawak:

– According to community representatives from Long Item, Long Kawi and Ba Abang, the Malaysian police have announced they will send five trucks to the blockade site tomorrow. Currently, the blockade is manned by over 50 Penan tribespeople – men and women – who are defending their native rainforests against further logging by Interhill.

– Thanks to the information received, we have been able to draw a map. It shows that the blockade is situated at the boundary of the Penan’s native customary rights land claimed in a court case in December 2009. The blockade site is near the Ba Baunau river not far from Interhill’s Ba Kabeng logging camp.

– The Bruno Manser Fund is asking the French Accor group to pressure Interhill for a peaceful solution of the conflict. In particular, no police action should be taken against the Penan communities and no gangsters should be employed by the logging companies Interhill and Samling (which has been the case in earlier blockades in the same region).

– The Bruno Manser Fund also asks Accor to press for a review of the September 2009 action plan, in which Interhill committed to 25 social and environmental measures. In particular, Intehrill should refrain from any further logging in the Penan communities’ claimed native customary rights land.

– The Sarawak and Sabah High Court in Miri is asked to deal urgently with the native customary rights cases filed by the Penan communities in Baram in December 2009 (Pania Irang vs. Damai Cove resorts and Pada Jutang vs. Damai Cove resorts). It is a scandal that out of seven Penan land rights litigations cases filed since 1998, none has reached the stage of trial yet.

– The Sarawak government and, in particular, Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, is asked to stop the destruction of the rainforests in the Penan areas. Taib Mahmud, whose brother Onn holds a monopoly over all timber exports from Sarawak, is personally responsible for the ongoing destruction of the Borneo rainforest in Sarawak.

– State assemblyman for Telang Usan, Dennis Ngau, and Baram MP, Jacob Sagan, are asked to support the Penan communities’ emergency action instead of siding with the ruthless exploiters of the native lands in Baram.

Please find a map of the blockade site attached. For all further information on the issue, please consult the “resources” section of the Stop Interhill campaign site: http://stop-interhill.com/resources/

Thank you for reporting on this important issue.

Your BMF team