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.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Loading Out of Disputed Logs at Selabu, Sebangan


In spite of an ongoing dispute and in an act of blatant disregard to the people of Sebangan & Sebuyau, the Sarawak Forest Department through its operations arm Sarawak Forest Corporation, gave permission to Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to remove logs from its timber camp at Selabu, Sebangan. The logs were loaded onto barges on 3rd and 4th November 2010.


The logs were taken from the Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands by Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd through its contractor Loyal Billion Sdn Bhd from the Selabu, Sebangan area.  A writ of summons was in fact filed on 01 November 2010 at Kuching High Court stopping the trespassing and extracting timber from the NCR lands. The Sarawak Forest Department and its operations arm Sarawak Forest Cooperation chose to ignore the dispute.

When contacted, an officer from the Sarawak Forest Cooperation stated that “Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd had paid royalties on the extracted timber and they have the right to ship the logs out”
The big question is why Sarawak Forest Department can’t wait until the dispute has been resolved before allowing Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd to remove the logs.
A Police report was lodged at the Simunjan Police Station on the 4th November 2010.
Meanwhile, all of the logging equipment used by Quality Concrete Holdings Bhd and its contractor Loyal Billion Sdn Bhd remains at the campsite.

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