Armed Loggers Threaten Borneo Natives
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Malaysian company Sentiasa Maju has threatened a protesting
Iban community with guns – police accused of collusion with the
loggers
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KAMPUNG GRAN (SARAWAK), MALAYSIA
--/WORLD-WIRE/-- Sentiasa Maju, a Malaysian logging
company operating in the state of Sarawak in Borneo, is being
accused of intimidating protesting locals with guns. The locals
from a native Iban community were defending their fruit and
rubber trees against destruction by Sentiasa Maju's bulldozers.
According to Sarawak Report, villagers from Kampung Gran near
Sri Aman said that an employee of Sentiana Maju waved a gun at
them and announced that “the company has many gangsters it can
deploy.” The incident reportedly took place on 4 December 2010.
A short video sequence recorded on a mobile phone shows a
Sentiasa Maju bulldozer driver equipped with a gun.
According to witnesses from the Iban village, the Malaysian
police refused to take notice of complaints lodged by the
villagers and protected the Sentiasa Maju employees in a manner
that runs counter to the law. There are further irregularities
in respect of the logging company's record with the Malaysian
Companies Commission. Sentiasa Maju's Companies Commission
record fails to specify the company's shareholders, despite the
fact that it was registered in 1980 already.
The Bruno Manser Fund is protesting against the blatantly
illegal operations being carried out by Sentiasa Maju and is
demanding that the Malaysian authorities immediately launch a
criminal investigation against Sentiasa Maju and the local
police officers who are colluding with the company. The
investigation should also shed light on the question of who the
owners of Sentiasa Maju are, and why the company was permitted
not to have its shareholders registered with the Companies
Commission.
The video evidence is available online under the following link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4PJcV-u7PA
Links
- Companies Commission file on Sentiasa Maju
- 4 pictures on Kpg Gran incident, courtesy of Sarawak
Indigenous Community News
Please contact us for further information:
Bruno Manser Fund, Socinstrasse 37, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland
www.bmf.ch <http://www.bmf.ch/>
, info@bmf.ch <mailto:info@bmf.ch>
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Tel. +41 61 261 94 74 |
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