MALAYSIA   

Police arrest eight tribespeople protesting dam

NOVEMBER 07, 2013

Police on Thursday arrested eight tribespeople blocking access to a dam which they say will displace them from their land.

Penans protested at road side infront the
 police makeshift near the Murum dam

Police arrested the eight Penans including two teenagers, took down banners and dismantled wooden barriers on the road to the remote US$1.3 billion (RM4.1 billion) Murum dam in Sarawak state, said activist Raymond Abin.

Abin, an official with the NGO, Save Sarawak's Rivers Network, said some 100 other Penans remained at the site to continue the blockade.

"The authorities find that this is the only way to deal with the people - refusing to deal with their demands," Abin told AFP. "The easy way is to arrest them in order to intimidate and threaten them."

A police official confirmed eight were in custody, but declined to comment further. Abin said the Penans were not told the reason for their arrest.

The Penans set up the blockade in September to demand RM500,000 ringgit for the loss of their land, property and livelihood.

The dam is expected to flood 245 square kilometres and cause 1,500 Penan and 80 Kenyah natives to lose their homes.

Sarawak Energy said the 944-megawatt dam began filling in late September and would be completed within 14 months.

It added that relocation of affected natives was set to be completed by year-end and insisted that displaced villagers were being compensated fairly.

The company dismissed the protest as "instigated" by activists.

The Murum dam is one of a series of hydroelectric facilities planned by the Sarawak state government as it pushes economic development in one of Malaysia's poorest states.

But the building spree in the resource-rich state along the powerful jungle rivers has been dogged by controversy.

Activists allege corruption, while natives complain it has flooded rainforests and uprooted thousands of people.

Hundreds of Malaysian tribespeople have blockaded the construction site of the nearby Baram dam.

While the Baram dam is expected to generate 1,200 megawatts of power, activists claim it will flood 400 square kilometres of rainforest and displace 20,000 tribespeople.

Sarawak's longtime chief minister Taib Mahmud has faced mounting accusations of enriching himself and cronies through a stranglehold on the state's economy, charges which he denies. 

- AFP, November 7, 2013.

Baram Dam protests escalate, assemblyman asks for cooling off period

BY STEPHEN THEN

Workers with their packed bags waiting to leave in boats after they were prevented from entering the dam site by protesting natives.

MIRI: A Barisan Nasional politician wants a temporary halt to ground testing and survey works at the proposed Baram hydro-electric dam site in interior northern Sarawak due to escalating protests and blockades staged by the natives.

Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau, who is Barisan Youth chief for Baram, told The Star Online the situation is "very hot" on the ground with the protesting natives showing unrelenting aggression. He is worried the situation will boil over into a physical confrontation.

Ngau wants a cooling period while he and other local Barisan politicians find a way out of this latest dispute that has threatened to turn into a serious political and social issue.

"Stop all ground works for the time being until further notice. Don't confront the protesters. Leave it to us politicians to find a solution," Ngau advised workers and contractors who are carrying out rock drilling between Long Naah and Long Kesseh some 200kms inland from Miri City.

Ngau said he has advised workers of Sarawak Energy Bhd and officials from the state Land and Survey Department to stay away from the site for now.

"These workers have left the area. They were advised not to confront the protesting natives.

"I have asked the community leaders in Long Naah and Long Kesseh and surrounding villages to cool down the protesters.

"The best thing now for all parties is for a cooling period to set in. The workers should not attempt to force their way past the protesters.

"The protesters are very aggressive and I am worried if there is physical confrontation.

"I and Baram MP Anyi Ngau are trying to arrange for an urgent meeting with all the relevant people, including the community leaders, to find a way out of this.

"I hope to get in touch with all of the native leaders within the next few days and get them to come down to Miri City where we can discuss things in a rational and calm manner.

"I would like to go into ulu Baram and meet the protesters if possible, but indications are that they will not listen and will not negotiate.

"For now, I think it is best to stay away until they have cooled down," he said of the latest situation in ulu Baram.

Environmental groups, Save Sarawak Rivers and Baram People's Action Committee, told The Star that the protesting natives who have set up blockades in Long Kesseh and the main road leading to the dam site, are reinforcing their barricades and blocking every roads to the dam site.

Save Sarawak Rivers' chairman Peter Kallang said another blockade at Long Lama was also being set up.

"No construction materials and equipment or vehicles are allowed to enter. At the dam site, the protesters are expelling every worker they find.

"Some of the workers and surveyors who were chased away tried to come back to the area, but were stopped at the blockades," he said.

Baram People's Action Committee chairman Philip Jau said the natives, numbering more than a hundred at each of the blockade sites, were made up of villagers, both women and men.

"We are staying day and night and manning the blockades 24 hour non-stop. We will camp out at the blockade sites for as long as needed," he said, adding that there is no other option for the natives but to make sure that they stop every ground work before the dam construction starts.

The proposed Baram Dam is one of 11 new dams that are being planned by the state government throughout Sarawak.

The Baram Dam will uproot at least 20,000 natives from the Kenyahs, Kayans and Penans ethnic groups.

Kallang, Jau and several human rights lawyers and environmental activists had written an appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, asking the world body to stop the dam from being built.

PENANS MURUM DAM BLOCKADE STILL STAND

Penans have not left their blockades

KUCHING (Oct 28, 2012): Contrary to what has been claimed, Penans from eight villages in Sarawak's Belaga district have not dismantled their blockades on access roads to the controversial Murum dam.

Sarawak Conservation Alliance of Natural Environment (Scane) coordinator Raymond Abin, who returned to Miri today after an overnight stay at one of the two blockade sites, said that the situation remains as it is and the international community is monitoring the issue.

"Over the last two days, many of them went back to Long Luar, one of the eight villages, because an elderly man died and later an elderly woman from Long Singu also died," he said.

He said that the Penans who have gone to the two villages will return after the mourning period is over. "But there are some still left to man the blockades," Abin said.

Abin stressed that not only are world bodies watching the matter, but also concerned Malaysians and those affected by the dam projects in Sarawak.

He was commenting on Land Development Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing's statement on Saturday that 320 Penan have abandoned the blockades after their negotiations with Belaga state assemblyman Liwan Lagang.

Masing, who is also PRS president, had quoted Liwan as telling the Part Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) supreme council meeting in Sibu about the Penans leaving.

Masing, who is also the state land development minister, had also told the government that the international community was keeping tabs on how the Penans were being treated.

"We have got to handle them carefully and with fairness," he told reporters after chairing a meeting, adding that it was important that the government knows that the Penans are a reasonable people.

 

Posted on 28 October 2012 - 08:53pm

Sulok Tawienewsdesk@thesundaily.com