Extracted from Malaysiakini

NCR land encroachment: Iban chiefs complain to Suhakam

Tony Thien

Feb 26, 05 1:43pm

A group of six tuai rumah (village chief) from four Iban longhouses in Sungai Naman in Durin near Sibu are the latest to bring their complaint to the Malaysian Human Rights Organisation (Suhakam) in Kuching about encroachment against a plantation company into their communal reserve land.

Suhakam Sarawak administrative officer Suffian Osman told malaysiakini today that the village chiefs were greatly upset by a miserly compensation offered by the company related to Sarawak-based public listed Ta Ann Group and for planting oil palm on their communal reserve land which they claim to have been gazetted by the government for agricultural purposes.

“They told us the company has offered compensation of RM130 per year for each of the longhouses” he said.

The four longhouses has a population of 1000.

The Ibans had gone to see Suhakam officials in Kuching on Thursday with a complaint that is now increasingly common against logging and plantation companies as new areas are being opened all over the state.

Suffian said Suhakam has advised them to write in with full details so that the matter could be taken up with the relevant authorities such as the Land & Survey Department.

More complaints

“We've to ascertain with the department on the status of the land, whether it has indeed been gazetted as communal reserve for the longhouses concerned,” he added.

The Ibans also complained the company had blocked the use of the only river for them as a means of transport.

According to the official, Suhakam has received 12 complaints, of which nine concern encroachment into native customary land (NCL), so far this year.

Last year it received a total of 28 complaints, of which 16 were on native customary land (NCL) matters.

As more land in Sarawak is being opened up for logging and plantation activities, the number of complaints from natives, especially those living in longhouses along rivers and their tributaries, has also increased.

They are mainly about encroachment into the lands the natives claim as theirs by customary rights, which is often a subject of conflict between the authorities/investors and longhouse dwellers.

There are now 103 cases involving NCL before the courts in Sarawak. Under the Sarawak Land Code, after1958 the onus is on the indigenous people to show proof that the land they claim as theirs by way of customary rights before such rights can be recognized.

Speed up survey call

Apart from this, many of them have also complained that it is a slow and painful process to apply for titles to such land, although the titles have been issued for sixty-year leases to quite a number of applicants, according to a senior Dayak politician.

Many Dayak community leaders and politicians are pressing on the government to speed up survey over NCL and to issue the titles, as the Dayaks, Ibans in particular, no longer move from one place to another and have become a settled community, confined mostly along the riverine systems.

Suhakam is understood to be trying to get the state government to speed up the processing of applications for titles as a means to arrest the growing conflict on the ground between the approving authorities, investors and the natives.

Suffian also said that generally the people have become more aware of their human rights, and the role that Suhakam is playing in assisting them.

Even the local enforcement authorities seem to be improving in awareness on human rights issues, judging from the ‘extremely good response' to the recent workshop on human rights and enforcement held in Miri.