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.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Appeal against acquital fixed for May 10

Taken from Borneo Post
Appeal against acquital fixed for May 10
Posted on April 9, 2011, Saturday

PENDING APPEAL: Numpang (second right) together with his friends and relatives outside the courthouse.

KUCHING: The High Court here yesterday deferred hearing the prosecution’s appeal against the magistrates’ court decision for the discharge and acquittal from criminal intimidation of self-declared Native Customary Rights (NCR) defender Numpang Suntai.

This was because both the appellant and respondent were not ready for the hearing. The next hearing was fixed for May 10.

The lower court discharged and acquitted Numpang from the charge last March.

Defended by counsels See Chee How and Desmond Kho, Numpang was accused of intimidating timber camp workers in the Sebangan-Sebuyau area at 2.45pm on Oct 18 last year.

Criminal intimidation comes under Section 506 of the Penal Code which provides for a maximum seven years’ imprisonment or fine upon conviction, or both.

The Magistrate’s Court released him from the charge as the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case against him.

But the prosecution appealed against the court decision.

Numpang was charged in December last year. He was among seven people including village headmen arrested to assist police probes of cases involving arson and damage to property.

The villagers claimed that the company had encroached into their NCR land through logging activities.

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