Human rights groups fret over fate of protesting Penans at Murum Dam site

BY STEPHEN THEN

A police blockade being set up at the entry point into Murum Dam after more than 200 Penans staged a protest against the Murum hydro-electric dam project. - Pic by Raymond Abin

MIRI: Human rights activists are worried over the fate of some 200 Penans protesting at the Murum Dam site in interior central Sarawak who are running out of food.

Police have "cordoned off" the area near where the protesters are camping.

Representatives of Borneo Resources Institute (Brimas) and Society for Rights of Indigenous People of Sarawak (SCRIPS) were in Murum the last few days to visit the Penans but found themselves unable to enter.

Brimas state coordinator Raymond Abin and SCRIPS secretary Michael Jok went there on separate occasions and told The Star Online that they were stopped from passing through the police barricade.

Jok, a former Catholic priest turned social activist, said on Monday that he and several officials were trying to deliver food to the Penans.

"Police have set up a roadblock preventing people from entering the Murum Dam site where the Penans are protesting against a hydro-electric project.

"We went into Murum in two 4WD vehicles filled with food rations over the past week. We wanted to give the food to the Penans, who are manning the blockade day and night.

"However, the access road leading to the protest site has been barricaded by a police team at the entry point.

"We have to leave the food at the place where the police blocked the road with a makeshift barricade.

"We asked the police to help get in touch with some of the protesting Penans to come and get the food.

"They agreed to that arrangement," Jok said after he made his way out of Murum, which is about 300kms from Bintulu town.

Abin said he took pictures at the police barricade.

"I tried to pass through the police blockade but was told that nobody is allowed in unless with permission for official business.

"I heard that the protesting Penans may set up blockades at other points along the road into the Murum Dam soon.

"They may be tired and hungry but they are determined to fight for their cause even though they are facing harsh weather conditions staying in makeshift camps," he said.

The Penans are from the remaining four settlements in the Murum Valley who are protesting the move to uproot them to resettlement schemes.

So far, three groups of Penans and Kenyahs have already agreed to move out of Murum Valley to the Tegulang Resettlement Scheme.

Abin and Jok appealed to the state government to again look into the grouses of the remaining Murum Penans who have yet to agree to the relocation plan.

Murum is located some 550km south of Miri and the protests there are by the Penans.

In Ulu Baram, the protests are being staged by more than 300 natives from the Kenyah, Kayan and Penan communities against the proposed Baram Dam site located between Long Kesseh and Long Naah some 200km inland from Miri.

The Star Online Published: Tuesday November 5, 2013 MYT 9:47:00 AM 

Nomadic Penan Group Appeals for Food in Search and Rescue Operation

Miri: A group of eight nomadic Penan families from Ba’ Puak is seeking help from the public at large for food as their daily necessities had drained out after carrying out almost five months of search and rescue (SAR) operations for one of their men who went missing around the forest in Loagan Bunut National Park last year.

Headman of the group Jepery Moyong, 28, appeals to the general public to help them with foods and provisions to enable to sustain their community SAR operation.

“We would be starving soon and have no choice but to ask for help since we are severely facing shortages of food”, he said.

“In this kind of peat forest, it is not easy to find food and further more we don’t want to cause trouble and accuse for illegal encroachment into the national park”, Jepery lamented.

Emang Moyong, 33, went missing on November 2 after performing at a cultural event organised by Petronas at its gas pipeline project camp site in Tinjar.

He was then purportedly asked to do video filming on the Penan’s way of hunting with blowpipes at Loagan Bunut National Park.

He was said to have being threatened by the so-called film crews. Since then, the Penans have launched a community search and rescue (SAR) operation in the thick forest around the park area.

The Malaysian Police had also carried out a 3-weeks SAR operation sometimes in November and December but were unsuccessful. The police had closed the case as their operations had failed to trace and locate Emang whereabouts.

“We are determined to continue with our search even though the authorities had ceased their SAR operation”, said Jepery.

“We will not stop our SAR operations as we believe that Emang is still alive”, he said.

According to Jepery, the incident that led to Emang’s disappearance was that he had being frightened and being too traumatise he could be hiding from somebody. “This situation can happen to any nomadic Penans as we are seldom in contact with outsiders”, he said.

Emang’s wife Usun Malin, 26 and two children Maria, 8 and Mathew, 6, are still hopeful to find him alive.

“We would only be relieved if his remains are found that is if he had died, and then we will go back peacefully to Ba’ Puak”, said Usun.

The nomadic Penan group of Ba Puak is among the few Penan nomads left in the rainforest of Sarawak. There are about 15 families at their settlement in Long Selulung, Ba’ Puak in upper Tutoh River area in the interior part of Baram District in the northern region of Sarawak.

The Loagan Bunut National Park has an area of 10,736 hectares and was gazetted by the Sarawak State Government as totally protected area on 29th August 1991. It is more or less about 100km from Long Selulung in Ba’ Puak.

Raymond Abin, national coordinator of Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) is sympathetic with the plight and distress of the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak that they are facing at this moment.

He called upon any civil society organisations, government and private agencies and the members of the public to help in the community SAR operation and provide assistance in-kind to the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak.

He said any assistance given can be done so through Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) at Lot 1046 Shang Garden Shoplot, Jalan Bulan Sabit, Miri, Sarawak. Tel: 085 423044 Email: scanenews@gmail.com