KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6, 2014: - Malaysian and international
human rights organisations are uniting to publicly denounce the actions taken
by police to intimidate indigenous peoples in Sarawak at the proposed site of
the Baram Dam.
On Oct 31, when a group of residents from the villages of
Long Na’ah and Long Kesseh tried to access customary lands located within the
site designated for the proposed Baram Dam, they were blocked by over 30 personnel
from the General Operation Force (GOF) and at least 10 enforcement officers of
the Sarawak Forestry Corporation.
As of Tuesday, Nov
4, the GOF and SFC personnel remained encamped at the area, acting as an
intimidating presence to the people of Long Na’ah and Long Kesseh.
If the 1200MW Baram Hydroelectric Project is built as
proposed by Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), it will inundate 26 villages, flooding
400 square kilometers of land and displacing between 6000 to 20,000 people.
The members of longhouses to be affected by the Baram
Dam, including the people who live in the vicinity of the proposed reservoir,
have never given consent for any timber clearance or other preparatory project
works to proceed on their customary lands.
Nevertheless, it appears that logging company MM Golden
Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Autorich Bhd, is seeking to proceed with extracting
timber from the area, an act which is presumed to be in connection to reservoir
clearance for the Baram Dam.
GOF and SAPU personnel, along with representatives of the
logging company, MM Golden Sdn Bhd, have set up a camp in the area since Oct 27,
establishng a makeshift gate at the site of the proposed dam, blocking
indigenous people from accessing customary lands.
In doing so, they appear to be backing the claims of MM
Golden to the site. Human rights groups across Malaysia and internationally are
therefore questioning why the police and forestry officials are prioritizing
collaboration with MM Golden above upholding the rights of indigenous land
owners.
“The residents of Baram are seeking to protect the
collective heritage of all Sarawakians; to keep the forests and rivers intact
for future generations. Yet, the result is that they are now being subjected to
intense surveillance and intimidation,” explained Thomas Jalong, president of
Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS), who is also a resident of Baram.
According to Peter Kallang, chair of the Sarawak-based
network, SAVE Rivers, the role of the police is to stop crime.
"The extraction of logs in the area of the proposed
Baram Dam is a crime because the lands belong to the people of Long Kesseh and
Na’ah.
"The police, therefore, should evict the loggers
from the site because it is the timber company that is trespassing and carrying
out illegal logging," Kallang said.
Serene Lim of the national human rights organisation,
SUARAM, said: “We question why the police are evidently taking sides with the
logging company and assisting in unlawful land-grabbing, contravening rights
enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
"They are essentially attempting to force the
indigenous peoples who have lived at the proposed dam site since time
immemorial to abandon their customary land," she said.
“It is time that the police order logging interests,
including MM Golden, along with the proponent of the Baram Dam, Sarawak Energy
Berhad (SEB), to withdraw from the area immediately.
The land now surrounded by police is native customary
land which has never been surrendered, and should therefore not be encroached
upon.
Rather than intimidating people and backing the interests
of logging and power companies, the police have an obligation to act in
accordance with national and international law.
The families who reside on native customary lands must be
allowed to live on their own properties without having to live in fear of
intimidation at the hands of the police and a few powerful individuals,”
explained Tanya Lee of International Rivers.
As a result of the escalating human rights concerns at
the proposed site of the Baram Dam, local, regional and international groups,
including SUARAM, JOAS, SAVE Rivers, International Rivers, Asia Indigenous
Peoples Pact (AIPP), and Bruno Manser Fund will be following up with the Human
Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
No comments:
Post a Comment