Malaysia: Penan attacked while trying to protect their forest
23.06.10
The Bruno Manser Foundation have reported that a Penan hunter has been violently attacked by a logging company official at a timber blockade in Sarawak, East Malaysia.
A Penan hunter has been violently attacked by a logging company official at a
timber road blockade in Sarawak, East Malaysia.
According to local community sources
a Penan named Aking Anung from Long Keneng was attacked yesterday by Ah New, a timber company official employed by a sub-contractor of the Malaysian Lee Ling timber group. Ah New had reportedly tried to attack the Penan hunter with a "parang" (bush knife). According to the Penan, Aking avoided being hurt by running away. He later lodged a police report in Limbang.
The incident took place at a newly erected timber road blockade near a timber camp at Long Sebayang in Sarawak's Upper Limbang region. The blockade had been set up jointly by Penan, Lun Bawang and Tabun natives in an attempt to prevent their land from being re-logged and converted into plantations by Lee Ling and its subcontractors.
"Our communities need support and we ask you to spread this news worldwide", a community spokesman said. The Bruno Manser Fund asks the Lee Ling Group to stop its violence immediately and to respect the native communities' customary rights in the Upper Limbang region.
Lee Ling Timber and the plantation company, Limba Jaya Timber, form part of the Lee Ling Group, which has its headquarters in Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak.
Sarawak is the largest of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. It holds the unwanted distinction of having some of the fastest deforestation rates in the world, and estimates run to about 50 per cent total deforestation. Often this landscape destruction is followed by oil palm plantations.
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