[Borneo-l] malaysiakini/04/12/05

[Otto Steinmayer]

Press meet 'sabotaged'
Tony Thien
Dec 3, 05 5:26pm


A group of Sarawak NGOs who were stood up by 15 foreign journalist at 
a 'scheduled' press conference in Kuching to listen to their woes are 
claiming that they were sabotaged.

Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) secretary-general Nicholas 
Mujah claimed today that the state authorities had lured the 15 
journalists away from the press conference scheduled for this morning.

The press conference was initially planned to brief the journalists 
about native customary rights (NCR) land and forestry issues.

The 15 media personnel were part of 300 international participants 
attending the International Media and Environment Summit (IMES) in 
Kuching.

At the sidelines of the summit, Alexander Thomson managing-director 
of the London-based News World International had initially agreed to 
arrange a group of at least 15 journalist from various countries to 
meet Sadia and other NGOs.

However, Thomson told the Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia 
(Brimas) programme director Raymond Abin that none of the journalist 
would be attending the press conference, as they had either gone back 
to their respective countries, or were required to take part in 
post-conference tours.

Several representatives from various NGOs told malaysiakini that they 
were not surprised by the no-show.

They claimed that their protest yesterday outside the hotel where the 
summit was held, had embarrassed the state government, and thus the 
alleged sabotage was a means of damage control.

Legalising illegal timber

In another development, another Sarawakian NGO has slammed the 
Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) for allegedly allowing 
illegal logging.

"MTCC is legalising illegal timber logged from the forests within the 
NCR land area of the indigenous Penan community in upper Baram, Miri 
in the northern region," said JOANGOHutan programme director Raymond 
Abin.

JOANGOHutan is a coalition of NGOs concerned about forestry issues 
and rights of indigenous people.

Abin was referring to the granting of timber certification in October 
2004 to Samling Plywood (Baramas) Sdn Bhd, over a forest management 
unit (FMU) known as Sela'an-Linau which the Penan community there 
claims is NCR land.

The Penans had initiated legal action over the company and the 
relevant authorities. The matter is pending a court decision.

"The MTTC is in a great rush to promote its certification scheme to 
any timber companies in Sarawak," he said, adding that Samling Timber 
Company had taken advantage of this despite the Penan's claim over 
the land.

According to Abin, the European market demanding for timber imports 
to be certified and to be sourced from a sustainable managed forest.

"MTCC is intentionally fooling the international consumers by giving 
certifications to illegal logging to make it legal for the Western 
market," adding that these issues were meant to be exposed during the 
press conference.

"Thus, the MTCC certification scheme is merely a marketing devise for 
Malaysia's disreputable timber industry rather than a credible effort 
to achieve sustainability," alleged Abin.

Abin urged the MTCC to address the plea of the indigenous communities 
and NGOs to withdraw the certification scheme and abide to basic 
principles of forest management.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini's Sarawak-based stringer.
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Otto Steinmayer
P.O. Box 13
94500 Lundu, Sarawak
Malaysia
home: 60-82-320205
handphone: 60-19-8379017
website: http://www.ikanlundu.com
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