At SUHAKAM this morning
Video later.
Chairman,
Human Rights Commission Of Malaysia,
Menara Tun Razak,
Jalan Raja Laut,
50350 Kuala Lumpur.
Complaint on the infringement by Police
of the Human Rights of Cik Norizan Bt Salleh
The Facts
1) On 30.10.2009, 29 year old Norizan bt Salleh was shot 5 times by police.
2) Norizan was travelling in a car when the incident happened. Without justification, police shot at the car from behind, the bullets penetrating through the body of the car and hitting Norizan who was seated at the back seat.
3) After being shot, Norizan was then kicked and stepped on by the police personnel despite bleeding profusely from being shot.
4) No person in the car was armed with any firearm and there was no threat of any kind to the police. Despite this, police chose to open fire repeatedly at the car.
5) Norizan is an innocent woman who has never been charged in court for any crime. She has suffered serious injuries including permanent damage to her hand. A bullet lodged close to her heart had to be removed by surgery at Institute Jantung Negara. Miraculously, Norizan has survived to tell the public what happened to her.
6) Norizan lodged a police report on 16.11.2009 complaining of attempted murder by police, but no action has been taken by the authorities against any police officer involved in her wrongful shooting and beating.
7) One of the other occupants of the car has told lawyers of how he was tortured by police in an attempt to get him to confess that the occupants of the car were involved in robbery. He alleges that police hung him upside down and chilli powder was rubbed on his body.
The complaint
1) Neither Norizan, nor any of the other occupants of the car, were armed with any weapon capable of posing any threat to the life or safety of the police personnel pursuing them.
2] The discharge of firearms by the police at the car, was intended to kill or seriously injure the occupants therein and not to stop the vehicle and apprehend the occupants.
3] The use of excessive force and shooting to kill by police in this case, is consistent with many other cases documented by activists. In almost every case, the police version of the events has been similar; that the victims opened fire and police returned fire, killing all of them. It has been easy for police to get away with this version, as the victims are usually dead and the truth buried. This has also been the police version in two recent shooting cases. [Kulim shooting (February 2009) and Klang shooting (November 2009)].
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED;
(i) call upon Suhakam to institute an urgent public Inquiry into the shooting and beating of Norizan Salleh;
(ii) to advise the Government to take immediate steps to institute wide- ranging reforms in the police force and to implement fully the recommendations made by the Royal Police Commission.
Complaint filed by :-
a) Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)
b) Democratic Action Parti (DAP)
c) Civil Liberties Malaysia
d) Police Watch & Human Rights Committee
e) Human Right Party (HRP)
f) Lawyers for Liberty.
Memo to IGP:Norizan bte Salleh, 5 Gunshot wound by Polis Di Raja Malaysia
Friday, February 5, 2010
Memo to IGP:Norizan bte Salleh, 5 Gunshot wound by Polis Di Raja Malaysia (PDRM)
Norizan bte Salleh, a 30-year-old single mother sustained five gunshot wounds when policemen opened fire on a car that she was traveling in. At least she is alive to…
Norizan bte Salleh, a 30-year-old single mother sustained five gunshot wounds when policemen opened fire on a car that she was traveling in. At least she is alive today to tell her story, unlike the rest of the 95% of Indian victims shot dead by Polis Raja Di Malay-sia and killed in police custody but form only 8% of the Malaysian population.
Today Human Rights Party’s S.Jayathas accompanied the victim Norizan bte Salleh together with Lawyer N.Surendran, MPs and NGO’s submitted a protest note to the IGP and for the prosecution of the police criminals for attempted murder.
See Protest Memo below:-
Tan Sri Musa Hassan,
Inspector General of Police,
Bukit Aman
MEMORANDUM OF PROTEST
Shooting by police of Norizan Bte. Salleh
The Facts
1) On 30.10.2009, 29 years old Norizan bt Salleh was shot 5 times by police.
2) Norizan was travelling in a car when the incident happened. Without justification, police shot at the car from behind, the bullets penetrating through the body of the car and hitting Norizan who was seated at the back seat.
3) After being shot, Norizan was then kicked and stepped on by the police personnel despite bleeding profusely from being shot.
4) No person in the car was armed with any weapon and there was no threat of any kind to the police. Despite this, police chose to open fire repeatedly at the car.
5) Norizan is an innocent woman who has never been charged in court for any crime. She has suffered serious injuries including permanent damage to her hand. A bullet lodged close to her heart had to be removed by surgery at Institute Jantung Negara. Norizan is lucky to be alive today!
6) Norizan lodged a police report on 16.11.2009 complaining of attempted murder by police, but no action has been taken by the authorities against the culprits.
Increasing incidents of unjustified police shootings
1) Activists, lawyers and elected representatives have raised the issue of unjustified shootings by police on many occasions, but have been ignored by both the Police Force and the Government.
2) In almost every case, the police version of the events has been similar; that the victims opened fire and police returned fire, killing all of them. It has been easy for police to get away with this version, as the victims are usually dead and the truth buried. This has also been the police version in two recent shooting cases. [Kulim shooting (February 2009) and Klang shooting (November 2009)].
3) Norizan’s shocking case proves that unjustified shootings by police have reached dangerous levels.
4) The brutality with which Norizan was treated after the shooting indicates the extent and seriousness of problems in the Police Force.
WE THE UNDERSIGNED DEMAND:-
1) An immediate investigation by a Bukit Aman team specially set-up for this purpose;
2) The result of the investigation be made fully public;
3) All those police personnel involve in Norizan’s brutal shooting be suspended/arrested immediately;
4) That the case be classified as attempted murder;
5) That there be immediate and thorough reform of the Police Force;
6) That the IGP explain to the public why the police have never revealed this shocking incident to the public;
7) The leadership of the police support the setting up of the IPCMC.
8) That all suspicious police shooting cases over the past decade be re-opened.
Endorsed by,
1) Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)
2) Civil Liberties Malaysia
3) Democratic Action Party (DAP)
4) Human Right Party (HRP)
5) Police Watch Malaysia & Human Rights Committee
6) Group of Concerned Citizens(GCC)
7) Lawyers for Liberty.
Case of Norizan Salleh(2)
Please share this important info with your friends:-
5 Cara Dapatkan Info Terkini Kes Fitnah 2 Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim:
6. MediaRakyat
Protest to IGP, Tomorrow 4 February 10.30am
Protest to IGPon victim of police shooting Norizan Salleh. Innocent Norizan shot five times & beaten by Police.
THURSDAY, 4 February
10.30 am BUKIT AMAN
Lake Garden Entrance
———————————————————————————————————-
Kenyataan Media
Biro Penerangan Wanita KEADILAN
29 Januari 2010
Kembalikan nikmat rasa selamat dan aman kepada Wanita Malaysia, PDRM
Wanita KEADILAN merasa kesal dengan insiden anggota PDRM yang telah menembak cedera seorang wanita, ibu tunggal, Norizan Salleh, yang tidak disabit dengan apa-apa kesalahan atau jenayah.
Wanita tersebut telah ditembak beberapa kali dalam insiden kejar-mengejar dengan kereta polis dan kini wanita itu mengalami kecederaan kekal yang memerlukan rawatan berterusan. Beliau tidak mendapat sebarang bantuan dari kerajaan dan tidak diberi pampasan akibat kesilapan mencederakan beliau oleh anggota PDRM.
Wanita KEADILAN juga merasa kesal dengan sikap anggota PDRM yang kasar dan tidak bersikap wajar dalam melayani wanita mangsa yang cedera. Wanita tersebut telah ditendang dengan sepenuh daya ketika keluar dari kenderaan dan mengakibatkan patah tulang rusuknya. Kesihatan dan keupayaan fizikal beliau kini terjejas.
Wanita KEADILAN ingin mempersoalkan tindakan anggota PDRM yang telah menggunakan senjata api terhadap suspek yang jelas tidak memiliki sebarang senjata. Ia menimbulkan kegusaran dan persepsi bahawa anggota PDRM bertujuan wewenang mencedera dan boleh membunuh suspek. Wewenangan seumpama itu adalah penyalahgunaan kuasa dan keganasan yang wajar dibanteras.
Keganasan terhadap wanita, dalam apa jua situasi, merupakan suatu perkara yang sangat ditentang dan diselar oleh Dasar Wanita Negara dan Konvensyen-Konvensyen Antarabangsa. Sikap anggota PDRM yang belum faham tentang asas yang sedemikian menimbulkan tanda tanya apakah lain-lain kakitangan dan jentera kerajaan juga tidak peka dengan etika dan prosedur kerja yang menitikberatkan tiada keganasan terhadap wanita, terutamanya yang memerlukan bantuan dan rawatan.
Sekali lagi Menteri Wanita, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil telah gagal mendidik sebahagian kakitangan awam supaya adil dan peka gender dalam perlaksanaan tugasan mereka dan berlaku wajar ketika melayani mangsa, khususnya wanita, yang disyakki dengan kesalahan.
Wanita KEADILAN menuntut, agar kerajaan Malaysia mengambil tindakan disiplin anggota PDRM yang sabit dan memberi keadilan kepada Wanita mangsa tersebut dengan menjamin keselamatan dan menawarkan pampasan yang wajar kepada beliau kerana kesilapan anggota PDRM yang terbabit. Wanita mangsa juga perlu diberi bantuan rawatan percuma sepanjang hayat oleh Kerajaan Malaysia agar wanita mangsa boleh menjalani kehidupan dan masa depannya dengan baik dan sihat.
Biro Penerangan Wanita
Parti Keadilan Rakyat
Women better Peacemakers
Q&A: ‘With More Political Space, Women Can Do More as Peacemakers’
Ashfaq Yusufzai interviews ZAHIRA KHATTAK, a women’s rights advocate
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 25, 2010 (IPS) – As a political activist and president of the women’s wing of the Awami National Party (ANP), Zahira Khattak has been working relentlessly for the empowerment of women in the war-torn North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. She believes that by empowering them, they can contribute more to the peace efforts in the region.
“We are holding a peace jirga in the near future in which women from the whole province will be invited to speak on the prevailing situation,” Khattak said, referring to the spate of violence in the NWFP, one of Pakistan’s four provinces. Women have also been providing comfort to the bereaved families of the victims of militant attacks in NWFP, she said.
When a suicide blast killed 34 people in Charsadda district in the NWFP in November 2009, the female members of the ANP, including the parliamentarians, offered prayers for the victims to embolden the people, she said. ANP’s women also visit the sites of bomb blasts and houses of the slain victims to encourage their families.
“Men dying in these attacks have mothers, wives, daughters and sisters, who are grieving. We go to their houses to give them psychological, mental and emotional support in these trying times,” said Khattak.
The ANP is part of a coalition government in the NWFP alongside the Pakistan People’s Party of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister who was assassinated in December 2007. It was swept to power in the February 2008 elections, ousting an alliance of Islamic parties.
Following the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Taliban government in Afghanistan was toppled, forcing the militant fighters along with al-Qaeda extremists to flee to the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border, taking sanctuary in the Federally Administered Tribal Area in Pakistan. They later spilled over into the nearby NWFP and started targeting business establishments and security personnel and installations. They also restricted women from venturing out in public without the accompaniment of close family members, and going to schools. In Swat district alone, some 185 girls’ schools have been bombed by the Taliban.
Noting that the violence inflicted on women must be stopped, the former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has also been working to expand public discourse to include the plight of the women in the province.
She sat down with IPS to share her thoughts on the ongoing efforts to create more space for women in the war-torn NWFP.
Q: The spate of violence in NWFP, including suicide attacks, can easily scare anyone. How are the women coping?
A: Women have always expressed concern over the situation and struggled to live each day fighting off the dire consequences of such incidents. The women of this region have lost a lot as a result of militancy in the region.
Q: You said ANP is organising a peace jirga (or council) where women will have a voice. How do you plan to mobilise them in this peace effort using the ANP platform?
A: The ANP has always played a pivotal role in the efforts to mobilise the women to pursue peace initiatives in the region. An example of this was the peace rally organised by the women’s wing of the ANP in March 2009, which was aimed at promoting peace and harmony in the region while focusing on the role women could play in (achieving this goal).
Q: After the peace council in March 2009, what’s next?
A: The ANP women’s wing is planning to organise a peace conference in March this year, which would also include inputs from women who belong to other political parties. Even a sister of Baitullah Mahsud (chief of the outlawed Tehrik Taliban, who was killed in the U.S. drone attack on Aug. 5, 2009) is welcome to join our campaign against terrorism and contribute to our peace efforts.
Q: How much more can women contribute to the peace efforts in the NWFP?
A: Women can actually do more in establishing peace and stability in this region if they are given their due place within the socio-political structures of society.
An example of this is the female governor [Habiba Sarabi] of the province of Bamyan in Afghanistan, who is working towards establishing reasonable conditions for promoting peace and stability in the province.
Q: That’s interesting, but how come very few women are going into the political arena to vie for electoral seats?
A: The political atmosphere in this country has never been conducive to women’s participation in electoral contests.
In 2008, before the elections, a lot of women, such as Bushra Gohar of ANP, wanted to run for elective posts. But because of the situation obtaining then (mainly owing to the attitude of the mullahs or clerics in the NWFP, who frowned on women participating in politics), it was not possible for them to pursue their political aspirations.
Hopefully, in the coming few years, the situation will change and women will finally be able to join the general elections, thus proving what they are capable of in the political sphere.
Q: How does the ANP ensure that women are accorded the rights due them, including political ones?
A: The constitution of the party has always given its women members equal status. We have used this very effectively, and because of the measures that we have taken (to ensure that they enjoy equal status with men), the number of women parliamentarians who represent the party has increased steadily over the last couple of years.
Q: Are more women awakening to their rights?
A: Yes, and they have done a lot to ensure that their struggles and efforts toward their political and social emancipation do not go to waste. The coming days will prove that.
Sarawak Minister says Penan are good storytellers
In an interview with BBC Radio 4′s flagship Today programme, broadcast on Dec 7, Masing said: “I think this is where we get confused. I think… the Penan are a most interesting group of people and they operate on different social etiquette as us… a lot this sex by consensual sex.”
BBC correspondent Angus Stickler then quoted Mary, a young Penan teenager, as saying that she had been dragged from her room, beaten unconscious and raped, after she had hitched a ride to school on a logging truck.
A federal government task force had confirmed in a report on Sept 9 that girls as young as 10 had been raped by loggers. Like Mary, some have borne children as a result of rape.
Masing, however, told the BBC: “They change their stories, and when they feel like it. That’s why I say Penan are very good storytellers.”
His remark is typical of the Sarawak government response. The official line has been to deny the rape of Penan girls and women by loggers, and to smear the Penan as primitive and promiscuous liars, while declaring that logging is a form of development.
The Sarawak government has asserted that logging brings roads, even if they are poorly maintained, to remote native Dayak communities.
However, the same roads have led to numerous reports of sexual assault on local Dayak, including Penan, girls, by logging company drivers and employees.
Masing’s slur of “changing stories” may be a reference to the police report lodged by a Penan rape survivor, ‘Bibi’, who withdraw her allegation.
But the Penan Support Group (PSG), a civil society coalition, pointed out her alleged rapist, Ah Heng (called ‘Johnny’ in the task force report) had escorted her to make the retraction. It said Ah Heng threatened and intimidated her into changing her story.
The PSG have criticised the police for closing their investigation into the sexual abuse, although the police had a representative in the task force.
The Bruno Manser Foundation (BMF), a NGO based in Switzerland that works for the Penan in Sarawak, has called on Masing to issue an apology.
The BMF had highlighted the sexual abuse of Penan by loggers last year. This sparked ocal media coverage and led eventually to the high-level task force investigation.
Masing’s changing story
Masing is unlikely to comply with any request to apologise. He is a leader of the Dayak-based Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), a splinter group from the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).
The PBDS nearly took over the Sarawak government in 1987 from Abdul Taib Mahmud, the most tenacious chief minister in the history of Malaysia.
Masing was PBDS vice-president and a stalwart of the opposition against Taib’s leadership of the state Barisan Nasional (BN) at the time. With a doctorate in anthropology, Masing was one of the most articulate political voices expressing the anger of the majority Dayaks, over the loss of their land to logging and plantation companies.
Following a crushing PBDS defeat in state elections in 1991, the party was broken and returned to the state BN. Masing was instrumental in dismantling the PBDS. He set up the PRS in 2003, claiming to represent Dayak people in the state BN.
Since then, he has been vilified by the Dayak communities fighting for their customary land rights all over Sarawak. The Penan, numbering some 15,000, are one of the ethnic groups included under the Dayak umbrella.
Masing is a highly qualified anthropologist. He understands the false dichotomy between ‘them’ and ‘us’. He has been trained in the cultural sensitivity required of all ethnographers and, as such, should serve as a Dayak spokesman for the Sarawak government.
Instead, he has become a vociferous defender of the Sarawak government’s abysmal record of deprivation of the Dayaks’ native customary rights (NCR) to land. He has transformed into the nemesis of his previous identity as a proponent of Dayak rights.
Sarawak’s political rivalries have thrown up public announcements and graphic descriptions of how its ministers allocate timber licences to family members and friends. They in turn lease the licences to loggers to extract timber. The logging companies – and their benefactors – have grown fabulously rich from their concessions.
Under the Sarawak Land Code 1958, natives are entitled to claim land they have used under customary law or adat. The Federal Court has affirmed the natives’ customary claims in celebrated landmark decisions such as Nor Nyawai vs Borneo Pulp Plantation Sdn Bhd, and Madeli Salleh vs the Government of Sarawak.
Regardless of court decisions, the logging companies, oil palm plantations and hydro-electric dam construction corporations have bulldozed these NCR claims aside. The state government claims all land without title is state land, even if NCR claims are pending.
Frustrated by the failure of the law to protect their communal farms and forests – and with landmark court cases ignored by the executive – Dayak communities have set up many blockades against the logging and oil palm companies.
Yet Masing continues to deny the widespread hardship among rural Dayak. He was disparaging about the Dayaks who fought for their land rights.
“You’re looking at state land. That land belongs to the government,” he told the BBC.
“But you cannot condone people who are squatters who are in areas where they should not be. If it is indeed their land, the law of the land will take care of that.”
KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist – anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia. His ‘The Antidote’ column, which appears in Malaysiakini every Wednesday, is an attempt to allow the voices of marginalised people to be heard all over Malaysia.
Sarawak:Rape of Penan women and girls
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Borneo tribe fights for survival
A BBC investigation into the actions of logging companies in Borneo has been told of the systemic rape and abuse of tribal women and girls – some as young as ten. Logging companies have been accused of turning a blind eye to the allegations for nearly a decade. In recent months the Penan tribe, armed with blow-pipes, have been blockading roads in an attempt to halt logging companies entering their ancestral lands. Dressed in loin-cloths – semi-nomadic tribesmen hunt with blow-pipes: bamboo canisters for poison darts and their machetes hang at their waists. These are the Penan, living in the jungle of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo. Back at their camp Leong Abid, a tribal chief, told me how the traditional Penan way of life is under threat from the logging companies. He describes how they are destroying the land where they hunt – in many areas the wildlife – the fruit they pick – the fish in the rivers – has all but gone. If this continues, he says, there will be nothing for his children. Sexual exploitation The roads built for and by the logging companies reach deep into the heart of the jungle. It is estimated that only 3% of the primary forest in Malaysian Borneo remains.
According to the government and the companies logging has its positive side: progress. It has, they say, given remote tribal communities access to schools, clinics and other villages. But our investigation has uncovered disturbing evidence that it has also exposed young women and vulnerable school girls to exploitation, abuse and rape. I spoke to Mary, a teenage girl who was tending to her baby daughter amid swarms of flies. The child’s legs were covered with running sores. It’s a desperate scene. Mary fell pregnant after she was raped. With the help of a translator she tells her story. How she was hitching a ride to school and was picked up by a logging company driver and two other men. They stopped off overnight. She was dragged from her room, beaten unconscious. She awoke naked – left in the dirt. The federal government of Malaysia has set up a national action committee to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.
Its report alludes to a dozen separate cases – mainly school girls hitching the four hour ride to and from school – children as young as 10. “The findings were basically that there was indeed sexual exploitation of the girls – especially where school children who during the journey back and forth from the schools have to use the transport provided by the lorries and lorry drivers of the timber companies,” says Ivy Josiah, one of the authors of the report. “They were open to exploitation either sexual harassment or sexual molestation and even rape.” “From what we understand this became the norm – it has been happening over a period of 10 years – and it is systemic in the isolated areas like the jungles of Sarawak.” ‘Storytelling’ The state government of Sarawak – those responsible for signing the logging licences – dismisses the federal government report as misplaced outside interference.
“I think this is where we get confused I think… the Penan are a most interesting group of people and they operate on different social etiquette as us… a lot this sex by consensual sex,” says James Masing, the Sarawak Cabinet Minister for Land Use. When I told Mr Masing that I had spoke to a young girl who said she had been beaten unconscious and raped, he replied: “They change their stories, and when they feel like it. That’s why I say Penan are very good story tellers.” The main logging companies operating in the area are Samling Global Ltd and the Interhill Group. Both companies say their own internal investigations found no evidence of sexual abuse or rape by their employees and that they are cooperating with the authorities. Hundreds upon hundreds of stripped timber trunks are stockpiled at the Samling logging storage depot. Caterpillar track grabbers load barges waiting to ship their cargo down river for export. Since the 1980s the Penan communities have been fighting through the Malaysian courts to try and protect their lands. But it is a lengthy process and, in the meantime, the government continues to issue licences and the companies continue to log.
“When the companies tell the people you have no rights over this land – we have the licence here – this is given by the government. Now the native says – we have been living here for the last 100 years since our ancestors – why do we need to have document of title?” says their barrister Baru Bain. “To win their case to maintain the kind of life they have – as it is today with the present policy that the government is having – I’m very pessimistic of that – I don’t see any hope for them in the future.” Disheartened by the legal process, the Penan are now taking matters into their own hands – armed with machetes and blow-pipes, they recently set up blockades. Unga, a Penan tribesman, told me that the logging companies were “destroying the way of the Penans’ life”. And he said that the Penan would use blockades, blow-pipes and machetes to defend their culture, adding “we believe we can win”. The allegations of rape and the blockades have started to draw international attention to the plight of the Penan, so far considered a national domestic issue for the state and federal governments of Malaysia. But two years ago the HSBC bank pulled out of Samling following concerns about its logging activities. And now campaigners hope more international pressure may yet be bought to bear. |
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I don’t see any hope for them in the future 
Bala the PI on Altantuya case is back!
Bala was in town, now on Youtube
Andrew Ong
Nov 13, 09
2:31pm Malaysiakini.com
A private investigator who made shocking allegations of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s links with Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, appears to have freedom of movement in the country despite being ‘wanted’ by the authorities.
P Balasubramaniam spoke to Malaysiakini in a brief phone conversation last month confirming that he returned from exile early last month for several weeks to attend to family matters.
The former police special branch officer also confirmed that he had been in and out of the country several times over the past year.
Balasubramanaim (right) said the authorities were aware of his presence in the country but was unafraid, adding that “they should fear me” due to the information he possesses.
He indicated a willingness to speak to Malaysiakini in a formal interview, but on the scheduled date, he was unreachable.
It is believed that he had again gone into exile in India with his entire family.
Last year, Balasubramaniam stunned the nation when, in a statutory declaration dated July 1, 2008, he alleged that Najib was sexually involved with Altantuya.
His statutory declaration also claimed that prosecutors and the police were ordered to remove evidence linking Najib to Altantuya’s murder.
Offered RM5 mil to retract statutory declaration
This statutory declaration was read out at a press conference on July 3, but he recanted and retracted it, substituting it with another one the following day under strange circumstances.
He then fled the country with his family on July 5 and was never seen in public again, until yesterday when he appeared in an online video interview on popular video sharing website Youtube [Click here for link].
In the interview, Balasubramaniam alleged that he was offered RM5 million by one ‘Deepak’ to retract his first statutory declaration.
Rolling text on the video suggests that ‘Deepak’ was linked to first lady Rosmah Mansor (left) and that the interviewed was conducted on Oct 27 in the presence of three Malaysian lawyers.
It is unsure who conducted the interview, believed to have taken place somewhere in India, but it was indicated that the clip was merely the first in a series with Balasubramaniam.
The 90-second video was posted by a user under the name c4productionhouse, which was responsible for a posting several interviews with fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and a series of videos condemning Rosmah.
Penan Rapes did occur
Friday, 11 September 2009 09:49am
©The Star
KUCHING: It has been confirmed that Penan girls and women were raped and molested by timber company workers in Sarawak’s Ulu Baram district.
A special committee, set up by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, revealed that sexual abuses against Penan women and girls by timber workers as reported by The Star last year did take place in the Baram district.
The special committee, set up last October to investigate the allegations, documented at least eight cases of rape and molest of Penan women and girls in its report.
The report said one of the victims was raped by a timber worker when she hitched a ride in the company’s vehicle to go to school.
Another was raped twice, in 2005 and 2007, by a man she recognised as a timber worker at a logging camp.
The report also said schoolgirls were often molested by lorry drivers while travelling to school in timber company vehicles.
It documented one incident where a lorry driver groped a 14-year-old girl’s breasts.
In another incident, it said a lorry driver tried to molest a group of 10-year-old girls, but they escaped.
The report concluded that “allegations of sexual abuse against Penan girls and women by outsiders, includ¬ing timber workers, did indeed occur”.
It highlighted the vulnerability of Penan schoolgirls to such abuse because of their dependence on timber vehicles to transport them to and from school.
“Logging tracks are often the only means of access to their villages,” it said, adding that schools and clinics were four to six hours away.
On addressing the sexual abuse, the report called for programmes to raise awareness among the Penans on personal safety, sex educa¬tion and violence against women.
It also recommended the appointment of “trusted” lorry drivers and student management assistants to escort Penan schoolchildren back to their villages.
The report also found that the Penans had little access to registration, healthcare and education due to poverty and the remoteness of their settlements. It said many Penans did not have personal documents while their children had a high drop-out rate at school.
“All these issues are closely related to imbalanced development. The lack of infrastructure such as roads and public transport make it difficult for the Penans to communicate with the outside world, including government agencies.
“The Penans also feel neglected because of negative perceptions and prejudices against them,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Bruno Manser Fund, which first broke the Penans’ allegations of sexual abuse last September, welcomed the release of the special committee’s report.
However, it voiced concern that the report did not have any legal consequences for the perpetrators.
“It is high time that those responsible for the crimes described in the report face the legal consequences of their conduct,” it said in a statement released on the Borneo Project web site.
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