Blockade set up by anti-Baram dam protesters has been dismantled

BARAM, Oct 21, 2014: A year old blockade set up by the indigenous communities in an attempt to stop the construction of the proposed Baram dam was dismantled this morning by the police, Forest Department officers and the loggers.

However, the loggers access to the site was short-lived as the protesters put up a new barricade hours later.

According to Johannes Luhat, one of the protesters, about 50 police General Operation Force (GOF) personnel, 10  Forestry Department officers and a handful of loggers from a  logging company M. M. Golden and  timber license holder Autorich Sdn Bhd  dismantled the barricade erected at Km15 Samling Road, just near the junction going into Long Kesseh.

The protesters confronted  the police, Forestry Department officers and the loggers to stop them from entering the site.

“When we arrived at the site, we asked them who authorised them to dismantle the blockade, since the area is still under dispute and no court order was made to order us to lift our blockade," Johannes said.

“One Forestry Department officer by the name of Asan Udau told us that we were breaking the law by setting up the barricade to stop the company from entering the site and to extract the timber.

“We told the Forestry Department officer that the company is actually logging on native customary land belonging to the villages of Na’ah and Long Kesseh and doing it illegally as they have yet to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study of the area, which was previously logged before.

"Furthermore, villagers from Na’ah and Long Kesseh are against the said logging activities”, said Johannes.

The protesters told the Forestry Department officer that a police report and a report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had been lodged against the illegal logging activities of the company in July this year.

He said that they have yet to receive a response either from the police or MACC.

After much argument, the protesters managed to put up a fresh new barricade at the same site and told Forest Department officer to give them a three- day grace period not to dismantle the new barricade, which the officer agreed.

As of 4.30pm today the new barricade is still standing.

M. M. Golden Sdn Bhd, a sub-contractor to Autorich Sdn Bhd, is extracting timber on logged over forest on the native customary lands of the villagers of Na’ah and Long Kesseh for the purpose of clearing the area to make way for the construction of the proposed Baram dam.