BRUNO MANSER FONDS, BASEL / SWITZERLAND

MEDIA RELEASE, 20 September 2006

Sarawak authorities threaten to arrest Penan blockade leaders

Ultimatum to lift long-standing logging road blockade expires tomorrow – Threats issued to enforce “sustainable” logging according to Malaysian timber certification scheme

Sarawak authorities have threatened to arrest four Penan leaders in Sarawak unless the community of Long Benali will give up their defiance against logging and remove a longstanding logging road blockade by tomorrow, Thursday 21 September 2006. The persons threatened with arrest are: 1. Sound Bujang (Headman of Long Benali), 2. Henission Phusu Bujanag, 3. Dennis Bujang, 4. Allen Lai (all of them residents of Long Benali). Penan sources reported that high-ranking local government officials and police were sighted in the remote area on Thursday 20 September.

Long Benali is located in one of the very few remaining ancestral forest areas of Sarawak, few kilometres from the borders of the recently gazetted Pulong Tau National Park. The logging road blockade was erected by the local community in February 2004 to protect their native customary rights lands and their remaining primary forests. The forest-dwelling Penan depend to a large extent on forest products for their livelihood which they see endangered by logging companies such as the Malaysian Samling corporation.

The Samling corporation has recently been granted a certificate for Forest Management by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) for the contested area. More than 600 Penan had protested against the certification of Samling and had launched an official appeal with the ministry in charge. Sarawak authorities deny that the Penan have any rights over their traditional lands and refuse to recognize any native customary rights for Penan. Earlier this year, a MTCC delegation threatened the Penan communities in the area with the police unless they agreed to accept “sustainable” logging as promoted by MTCC.

For more information:

Bruno Manser Fonds

Association for the Peoples of the Rainforest

Heuberg 25

4051 Basel / Switzerland

Tel. +41 61 261 94 74

info@bmf.ch