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Saturday, 07 November 2009 02:04 |
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MIRI - Over the past two days,
workers from an oil palm company had ploughed their way through a plot
of farmland adjacent to a longhouse of the Kenyah minority natives
despite desperate attempts by villagers to stop the alleged intruders.The
natives have lodged police reports against the workers for trespassing
on their farms and uprooting their fruittrees but, the villagers
claimed, the police were siding with the oil palm giant and even
providing escorts for the workers.  There
are about 500 Kenyah natives involved in the land dispute with the
company in the Long Koyan settlement in central Sarawak’s Belaga
district. Inherited from ancestors The
company, a subsidiary of a Miri-based land development consortium, had
allegedly bulldozed its way into a plot of land to open up an access
road into areas earmarked for an oil-palm plantation. The
natives claimed that the area targeted for clearing was their native
customary rights (NCR) land, inherited from their ancestors, The Star reported on Saturday. The company claimed that it has been given the concession right by the State Land and Survey Department to develop the land. Long
Koyan chief Tuai Rumah Nyalang Tahe has taken the Kenyahs’ problem to
the Borneo Resources Institute (BRI), a community-rights group. BRI
executive director Mark Bujang told the paper that the Long Koyan
natives were very angry with the company for infringing upon their land.  “The
company workers had started clearing works despite appeals from the
affected villagers. The natives said they have NCR status on the land. “They have lodged numerous police reports, but no action has been taken,” he said. Given the run-around Bujang said Tahe also claimed to have been given the run-around by the police. “Tahe was arrested on July 21 when he tried to stop company workers from entering his village. “
He took away the keys from an excavator, but the police arrested him
for stealing although he had explained that he was merely trying to
stop the machine from bulldozing his people’s land,” said Bujang. Company also lodged report A
check with Belaga police showed that the company had also lodged a
police report against Tahe and the villagers, claiming that they had
hindered them from carrying out their work. Bujang
urged the police and the state authorities to help the Long Koyan
people resolve their problems amicably to prevent the situation from
turning into a full-blown physical confrontation.- Malaysian Mirror
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| Last Updated on Saturday, 07 November 2009 06:07 |
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