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, February 19, 2011

Taib’s sister incurs natives’ wrath

From Free Malaysia Today
By Joseph Tawie| February 20, 2011

Villagers lodge police report against logging company owned by Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's sister Raziah.

KUCHING: Twenty-four longhouse folk representing 14 longhouses and villages have lodged police reports against Quality Concrete Sdn Bhd and its contractor Loyal Billion Sdn Bhd at the Sungai Maong police station for alleged cheating.

The reports were lodged on behalf of some 200 villagers who claimed that they were cheated when they were coerced into signing the deed and undertaking to Loyal Billion. They claimed many of them are illiterate.

The deed and undertaking signed between Loyal Billion and the natives allowed the company to enter and log timber in the natives’ native customary rights (NCR) land and “pulau galau” (communal forests).

Each of the family was given RM250 upon signing the deed and undertaking.

The Quality Concrete company, which is owned by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah, is the licence holder to extract timber from 3,305 hectares of communal forests in the Sebangan/Sebuyau area and has given the contract to Loyal Billion to extract timber.

Last week at the Kuching High Court, the natives were granted an interim injunction against Quality Concrete, Loyal Billion, Penghulu Merum and Agu Anak Kaleng to stop them from entering the area.

‘Natives exploited’

Loyal Billion is, however, filing its defence against the injunction next week and has passed the deed and undertaking and other evidence to lawyers representing the natives, saying that it has obtained the rights to enter and log timber in the area.

“When we look through the deed and undertaking, it is obvious that the natives have been exploited and their ignorance of the law and their illiteracy were taken advantage of,” said Numpang Anak Suntai, spokesperson for the natives who was present at the police station.

“Some complained that they never signed the deed and undertaking, but others signed on their behalf,” said Numpang.

As they are illiterate, they thumb-printed the document.

In the deed and undertaking, the villagers lost everything including their rights to their land and their “pulau galau”, he said.

Realising that they have been cheated, the villagers then lodged police reports against Loyal Billion, he said.

Numpang called on the police to carry out an immediate investigation.
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