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.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

NCR activist’s case postponed again as police not ready

Joseph Tawie

 | May 24, 2011
Taken from Free Malaysia Today
Is the police giving native NCR land activist, Numpang Suntai, the runaround due to the involvement of a logging company belongng to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's sister Raziah?
 
KUCHING: An activist and a defender of native customary rights (NCR) land, Numpang Suntai, is upset at being given the runaround by the police and the courts.
 
For the third time today, the Kuching High Court had allowed for a postponement because the police had failed yet again to prepare their appeal against him.

Numpang, who wasn’t alone in court, was accompanied by 100 other native land owners who had travelled all the way from Sebangan, Simunjan some 150 kilometres from here to the Kuching High Court only to be told yet again that the case was not ready for hearing.

According to Numpang’s counsel See Chee How, Numpang and his supporters are “not happy with the continuous delay of the case,”

“This is the third delay which is caused by the fact that the letter of appeal is yet to be prepared,” See said.
Numpang was first asked by the police to appear in the Kuching High Court on April 8. But when he appeared in the court that morning, he was told the letter of appeal was not ready.

Two weeks ago he was again asked to appear before the court, and again the letter of appeal was not yet prepared and served on him or his lawyers.

“This morning the same thing happened again,” said See.

According to See, Judge Ravinthran N Paramaguru postponed the case to July 18, 2011.
“It is most unfair for Numpang who came all the way from Sebangan in Simunjan to Kuching. Again for the third time the letter of appeal is yet to be prepared and to be served on him or his lawyers,” said See.

Criminal intimidation

The police had appealed against a decision by Magistrate Sharizat Ismail who ruled that the prosecution had failed to put up a prima facie case against Numpang who was charged for criminal intimidation.

The case which was heard on March 9 at the Simunjan district court was brought against him by logging company, Quality Concrete Holdings, owned by chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s sister Raziah.

Numpang, a native activist and a defender of NCR land was arrested on Oct 22, 2010 together with another well-known activist Nicholas Mujah and five longhouse chiefs in connection with a fire that occurred on Oct 18, 2010.

The fire had allegedly destroyed the campsite of a logging company, Loyal Billion Sdn Bhd, a contractor of the licence-holder Quality Concrete Holdings.

In that fire, six tractors, two logging trucks, a pick-up and excavator were damaged. The company estimated its losses to be worth more than RM2 million.

The seven were detained for three days at the Simunjan Police station, but were later released on police bail of RM1,000 each.

However, only Numpang was charged, not for causing fire but for criminal intimidation.

Quality Concrete Holdings has been in the centre of the dispute after the State Forest Department issued it a licence to carry out logging in 3,305 hectares of forest which the natives claimed to be part of their NCR land.

The company then handed over the contract works to Loyal Billion to extract timber believed to be among the best rainforest species in Sarawak.

Meanwhile, Numpang and the NCR landowners have already filed a civil suit against Quality Concrete Holding for allegedly encroaching into their NCR land. The case is expected to be heard on August 8, 2011

My comment:  There is nothing fair about this Barisan Nasional Government. They are punishing my brother and I hope they will get their dues some day. What goes around, comes around. We called it karma.

If the prosecutor could not prepare the case, the case should be dismissed and the prosecutor who is always not ready, should be fired from his job.

Is the Barisan Nasional Administration concerned about fairness and justice or fair play? Is the court only open for the convenience of the prosecutor and his politcal masters? They are abusing their power to prosecute any natives who dare to take a stand against the destruction of our NCR lands and forests. Rules of laws do not apply to the powerful people in this administration. They want natives to take this kind of injustice and abuse lying down and not fight back! They want to take all the valuable trees and decimated our forests. Well, I am not taking this lying down!

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