Published: Friday November 6, 2009 MYT 8:40:00 PM
Borneo natives in stand-off with oil-palm giant
By STEPHEN THEN
MIRI: A stand-off between a group of more than 500 Kenyah minority natives and an oil-palm giant over a land-dispute in Long Koyan settlement in the Belaga district in central Sarawak has reached a boiling point.
The oil-palm 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 land, inherited from their ancestors.
The company claimed that it has been given the concession right by the State Land and Survey Department to develop the land.
Over the past two days, workers from the company had ploughed their way through a plot of farmland adjacent to the native’s longhouse despite desperate attempts by the villagers to stop them.
The natives have lodged police reports against the workers for trespassing on their farms and uprooting their fruit trees, but they claimed that the police were siding with the company and were helping to provide security escort to its workers.
Long Koyan chief Tuai Rumah Nyalang Tahe had to seek help from the Borneo Resources Institute, a community-rights group.
The institute’s executive director Mark Bujang on Friday said 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.
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 the 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.
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.
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