For Immediate Release
MURUM – The Penans in Murum
affected by the Murum Hydro-electric Power (HEP) Dam are still blockading the
road leading to the construction site of the dam despite newspaper reports
saying otherwise.
Raymond Abin, coordinator for
Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) confirmed today
via telephone that the blockade in Murum is still on and the reports in the
newspapers saying that the blockade has been lifted is false.
Raymond said, “Liwan Lagang did
indeed tried to negotiate with the Penans to dismantle the blockade, however
the Penans were not happy with him as he could not assure them in writing that
the government would accede to their demands.”
According to Raymond, the Penans
however, did agree to Liwan suggestion to not bring their children to the
blockade site and with this some of the Penans brought their children back to
their villages.
Liwan also invited a few Penans
with him to Bintulu and then Kuching to meet and negotiate with government
officials there.
]It is here that Liwan told the
press that the blockade has been lifted contrary to the report that Raymond
gave.
“I met the elders and leaders in
Murum yesterday and they are saying that the blockade is still on,” Raymond
said.
“They told me that only one headman
accompanied the few members of the community to Kuching and that they are not
in the position to make any decisions on behalf of the whole community,” added
Raymond.
“The Penans are still adamant with
their demands to the government,” said Raymond.
Among their demands are 25 hectares
of land for each of the 300 families affected by the dam; RM500,000 cash
compensation for each family; 30,000 hectares of land to each of the nine
villages; education fund for their children; community development fund for
their
community;
and rights to land which are not flooded (islands created) by the dam.
On Monday, 8 October 2012, it was
reported in the Borneo Post that the Penans in Murum have ended their 10 day
blockade with the intervention of state assemblyman for Belaga, Liwan Lagang,
who is also Sarawak’s Assistant Minister of Culture and Heritage.
The Penans are from 8 villages,
namely Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu and Long
Malim, which are located upstream, and Long Peran and Long Jaik in the
downstream of the dam project site.
The Murum HEP will inundate and
require the forced relocation of about 1,500 Penans as well as the 18
Kenyah-Badeng families in Long Umpa village near Long Malim in Danum River, the
upper course of Murum River.
SAVE Rivers is again urging the
government to listen to the plights of the Penans and is emphasising the need
for the government to abide by the United Nations Declarations on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which Malaysia has agreed to adopt at the United
Nations.
SAVE Rivers note with great concern
that the government has admitted through James Masing, Sarawak’s Minister of
Land Development and now Liwan Lagang that there are a lot of weaknesses by the
government in dealing with the Penans affected by the Murum HEP project.
SAVE Rivers is shocked to learn
about the revelations written in the report from the leaked Murum Resettlement
Action Plan for the natives to be displaced by the Murum Dam which can be found
in the Sarawak Report website that explains how the impoverish Penans are neglected
by the government and that the resettlement site is not suitable for them at
all.
This is the very reason why SAVE
Rivers is against the planned 11 dams which the state government is planning to
build across Sarawak’s interior which will flood thousands of hectares of
native customary land and displace thousands of indigenous peoples from their
ancestral territories.
SAVE Rivers will continue to update
on the situation of the blockade.
End
–
For more information you can
contact Raymond Abin at +60138449345
Press Statement release by:
Mark Bujang
Secretary,
SAVE Rivers
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