NEWEST UPDATE ON NUMPANG SUNTAI'S AND SEBANGAN NATIVES' STRUGGLE TO PROTECT OUR NATIVE CUSTOMARY RIGHTS LANDS AND SEBANGAN RAINFOREST.

Sebangan is located in the State of Sarawak, Malaysia.

Numpang Suntai and 14 others, representing 276 Iban families from the 15 longhouse communities of Kampung Entanggor, Ensika, Lumut, Arus Dayak, Tongkah Dayak, Tongkah Dayak Lubuk Manta, Tongkah Dayak Atas, Tongkah Dayak Rumah Panjai, Lunying, Belimbing Besi, Ketimbong and Bajong Ili, Bajong Ili Atas, Bajong Ili Tengah, Bajong Ili Baruh, all situated at Sebangan, Simunjan, Sarawak, filed their civil suit at the Kuching High Court on November 1st, 2010.

This case was heard at Kuching High Court on August 8th though August 19th 2011. This civil court proceeding is far from over. It is to continue on November 8th through 11th, 2011 and will reconvene again on December 19 through December 23rd, 2011.

Named as defendants in the civil suit are Quality Concrete Sdn Bhd the timber concession holder, Loyal Billion Sdn Bhd the logging contractor, 2 government appointed community leaders Penghulu Merum anak Babu and Ketua Kampung Agu anak Kaleng, together with the Director of Foresty and the Sarawak State Government.

The Sebuyau and Sebangan Ibans still need your moral and financial support to fight against illegal loggers. Your contributions will pay for the legal expenses and the cost of transportation, lodging, and food for Sebangan villagers who will be attending the proceedings in Kuching.

We desperately need your support to save our NCR heritages and our prestine environment from further destruction. If we lost this case, we will lost our land and forest to timber tycoons and oil palm plantation owners. Losing this case is losing our life line, our means of survival. Without our land and forests, we the Dayaks, the natives of Borneo, we have nothing.

In the USA please e-mail christinasuntai@gmail.com for postal address and other information. Or you can use Pay Pal by clicking Donate and you can use any credit cards to donate on-line. Thank you for you donations and support.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Protesters Jailed

Sarawak Report
I will never forget this picture of my brother as long as I live
In a recent story Sarawak Report exposed the shocking attempt by the firm Quality Concrete to force Iban villagers to hand over their rights to 3,035 hectares of Native Customary Rights Lands in Sebangan  just MR 250 (US$ 80) per family.
The company, of which the Chief Minister’s sister Raziah is one of the Directors,  is after the millions of dollars-worth of rare and valuable hardwood trees in the area.  However the Ibans are refusing, saying they want to preserve their forest for future generations.
Now, the leading protesters named in that story have been thrown in jail on the pretext of a fire that broke out at Quality Concrete’s logging camp on Monday.  There is no evidence about what happened, however ten local people were originally arrested and three have still not been released: these are Numpang Suntai, a retired worker for Shell; Nicholas Mujah, who runs Sadia, an NGO supporting Dayak rights and one of the local headmen, Tuai Rumah Sadon ak Ason.

There is no evidence against any of these men yet the political motives are clear.  Both Suntai and Mujah have been helping the locals with their vocal campaign and they have supported villagers who carried out a blockade against illegal logging by the company in their territory.  Yet neither were anywhere near the outbreak of the the fire and it is clear their arrests are purely a response to their legitimate protests on behalf of their community.  The pair came to Simunjan local police station in answer to a request by the local police chief, DSP Choo Yin Kok, whose telephone number  is 082 803779, Mobile : 019-8583016 and have not been released.

There is no evidence that local people were behind the fire.  Indeed, since Quality Concrete’s provisional licence to log the area runs out next month, the motivation on their side is arguably stronger in terms of a potential insurance pay out.  Meanwhile, the logging camp itself remains illegal and Sarawak Report has documents showing that Quality Concrete has been banned by the Forest Department from carrying out further logging in the area until and unless the dispute is settled.
Therefore, Sarawak Report and several local and international NGOs are questioning on what grounds are these people being held?
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