Tag Archive for 'Malaysia'Page 3 of 3

20
Apr

Penan build five new blockades

From Survival International: Five new blockades have been set up by Penan tribal communities in the Malaysian province of Sarawak in an attempt to stop loggers destroying their forest homes.

On April 4th 2007 officers of the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, supported by the police, dismantled another Penan blockade for the second time this year. The police used chainsaws to destroy the blockades and fired gun shots to intimidate the Penan.

Four Penan villages and one nomadic group recently set up the five new blockades, in protest at the logging companies Rimbunan Hijau, KTS Logging and Samling. Police are reportedly already heading towards one of the blockades, which is on a main logging route and used by a number of different companies. Survival is concerned for the safety of the Penan at the blockade sites.

Much of the Penan’s forest has already been destroyed. According to Malaysian and international law the Penan have …

Published on
April 20, 2007
  0 Comments 785 views

13
Apr

Police dismantle Penan logging blockade, again.

Malaysian Police in Sarawak have once again removed the blockade set up by the Penan People. You may recall the blockade was rebuilt a few weeks ago, after it was initially torn down on Feb 7.

From BMF: The police used chainsaws to dismantle the blockade and set the logs on fire, the community reported. Timber company workers of Samling, a controversial Malaysian timber company, were also present at the site. “The police and the company workers were very rude and did not negotiate with us”, a Penan spokesman said.”We couldn’t do anything because we heard the police firing gunshots which made the situation really dangerous to us.” (source)

Some background from Survival International:

Since the 1970s, all the tribal peoples of Sarawak have had their land taken to make way for logging, dam construction and oil palm plantations - driving them into towns where they are reduced to …

Published on
April 13, 2007
  0 Comments 773 views

04
Apr

The Orang Asli - From Slaves to Specimens to People

The Orang Asli are those Indigenous to Peninsular Malaysia. Numbering over 100,000, the Orang Asli are comprised of 18 different communities - most of whom hold their own Languages and Traditions.

Living primarily in the Forests of Malaysia, the Orang Asli (which means ‘Original People’ in Malay) have had an historical experience not unlike the Indigenous with the Colonial States of Canada, America, and Australia…

In the 18th and 19th centuries slavery was a ‘common feature’ among the Orang, who were commonly viewed as as ‘kafirs’, and ‘non-humans.’

The modus operandi was basically to swoop down on a settlement and kill off all the adult men. Women and children were preferred as they were less likely to run away and were ‘easier to tame.’ The Orang Asli slaves were sold off or given to local rulers and chieftains to gain their favour.
http://www.magickriver.net/oa.htm

During the time of the slave trade, the British arrived, …

Published on
April 4, 2007
  0 Comments 1,394 views

25
Mar

Penan re-erect road block against Samling corporation

Penan re-erect road block against Samling corporation
Bruno Manser Fonds, www.bmf.ch
March 15, 2006

Members of the Penan tribe, who live in the rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, have re-erected a road block in protest against logging activities by the Malaysian Samling corporation. This was reported by Penan sources today. The community action took place near Long Benali in the Upper Baram region of Sarawak one month after the Malaysian police cleared a near-by roadblock set up by villagers of the same community.

The Long Benali road block is situated at a strategic location because the community is the entry point to one of the last contiguous pristine rainforest areas of Sarawak. More than ninety percent of Sarawak´s rainforests have already been logged as a consequence of an environmentally destructive and short-sighted local government policy. Sarawak´s forestry policies are widely criticized for failing to live up to international sustainability standards.

The Samling …

Published on
March 25, 2007
  0 Comments 837 views

25
Feb

Rainforest NGOs launch campaign against Samling stock exchange listing

Rainforest NGOs launch campaign against Samling stock exchange listing
BMF PRESS STATEMENT
February 25, 2007

A number of NGOs concerned with the conservation of tropical rainforests and the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights have launched a campaign against the public listing of the Malaysian Samling group.

Samling is a logging corporation based in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and owned by the Yaw family. It operates on a total of some 3.4 million hectares of natural forests and 470’000 hectares of plantations. Samling has a poor environmental and social record in its countries of operation, which include Malaysia, Guyana, China and New Zealand.

The Yaw family has also left behind a trail of destruction in the forests of Cambodia and Papua New Guinea where its bulldozers have been operating until a few years ago.

The campaign’s main targets are the international banks involved in the logging giant’s listing, in the first place Credit Suisse, which acts …

Published on
February 25, 2007
  0 Comments 909 views

20
Feb

Malaysia - Penan Blockade Demolished. Let the deforestation begin.

Penan Blockade Demolished: Samling bulldozing new logging road, destroying community’s primary rainforests
BRIMAS, Miri, - 8 February 2007

PENAN LOGGING BLOCKADE REMOVED

A group of Malaysian Police Force together with the personnel of the Samling Timber Corporation has completely removed the Penan logging blockade in upper Baram, Sarawak on 7th February 2007 (Wednesday).

The Penan village of Long Benali and several other Penan villages in the interior of Baram district have set up the blockade since 2004. They put up logs and wooden structures tightened with rattans across the logging road. A hut was also built and used by the Penan as shelter while manning the blockade.

At the time the blockade was dismantled there was no resistance from the Penan as they were back in the village. They only knew about the removal of the blockade upon their return to the blockade site. By then it was too …

Published on
February 20, 2007
  1 Comment 1,443 views

16
Jan

EU delegation to visit Penan blockade area without meeting the Penan

EU delegation to visit Penan blockade area without meeting the Penan
Bruno Manser Fonds
January 16, 2007

Community spokesman: “Our people are expecting the delegation to meet us”

An official EU delegation enquiring about the legality and sustainability of timber production in Malaysia is set to travel to the Penan areas in Sarawak later on this week. However, it has been learned that the EU delegates are not going to meet the Penan communities despite an invitation by the headmen and an open letter to the delegation by a number of European and Malaysian NGOs.

The EU delegation’s travel is part of the negotiations between the EU and Malaysia to reach a “Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA)” to control illegal logging and work towards sustainable forest management in Malaysia. While the Malaysian government hopes that its national timber certification scheme, the MTCC, will be accepted as a guarantee of legality, Malaysian and European NGOs point …

Published on
January 16, 2007
  0 Comments 646 views

Video activism and the Chiapas Media Project

In the following presentation, Claudia Magallanes-Blanco from the University of Western Sydney talks about the role of video activism as a world-wide tool for empowerment and the Chiapas Media Project, a collaborative effort based in Mexico that provides indigenous Zapatistas in Chiapas and peasants in Guerrero with training and equipment to produce their own videos.

Since forming in 1998, CMP has distributed over 6000 videos, including: Zapata’s Garden, a film that looks at the society the Zapatista’s are building; …


I Am A Defender of the Rainforest

Known as ‘Soy defensor de la selva’ in Spanish, I am a Defender of the Rainforest is an award-winning documentary that was filmed, edited, and directed by members of the Sarayaku community in southern Ecuador.

The film shows how the …


Underreported Struggles #19, October 2008

In this month’s Underreported Struggles: 400,000 Guatemalans Reject Development Model, Philippines Indigenous People Unite for the Land, Riot Police Target Algonquin Blockade, Chagos Islanders Denied the Right of Return, and 17 other stories …


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