Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) today staged a picket outside the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya alleging that the government lacked commitment to resolve the plight of the Penan women and girls who were raped by loggers.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/113039
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The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) has called on the government to immediately identify, arrest and bring to court rapists and sexual rights violators of Penan girls and women of Baram, Sarawak.
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Justice now for Penan rape victims
Finally, it is officially confirmed - Penan girls in the interiors have been raped and sexually harassed by timber camp workers.
The story first broke in October last year when some Penan rape victims came to Kuala Lumpur in the company of a few women NGOs to seek redress for their plight.
Because of the seriousness of the allegations and the publicity around the issue, a special task force was set up on Oct 8, 2008 under the then Women, Family, and Community Development Minister Ng Yen Yen. The task force also included representatives from a number of other ministries.
I know for a fact that the task force did send a delegation to visit the Penan settlements to interview the rape victims. They were helped by the local NGOs, and did not encounter much problem during their investigation. A source reported that one female official was sobbing as she was taking down the testimony of the rape victims.
Sim Kwang Yang
Sep 12, 09
2:13pm
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The Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) has called on the government to take action on allegations that women and young girls from the Penan tribe in Sarawak have been sexually abused by workers from jungle logging camps.
Justice now for Penan rape victims
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The Penan blockades against timber and plantation companies in the Tutoh-Apoh area of Sarawak remain standing and are drawing international concern.
The Penan have refused to remove the blockades unless the government respects their ancestral land rights. The blockades continue despite one-sided coverage by local newspapers and threats against the Penan by the police.
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People has been oppressed
No human right at all!!!
A reported desperate food shortage afflicting 3,000 Penans in Ulu Belaga, Sarawak, has received scant attention among State authorities and the national mainstream media.
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Two Sarawak newspapers, the Borneo Post and the See Hua Daily News have published several articles accusing journalists of being the "foreign instigators" responsible for Penan blockades in Sarawak.
See how idiot.... these newspaper are irresponsible .....
Penan should be brought to world radar NOW & Forever!
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Minister for Women, Family and Community Development Shahrizat Abdul Jalil has been resisting mounting pressure to make public a controversial report on the alleged rape and sexual abuse of Penan girls in Sarawak.
Civil society groups have documented 15 reports of alleged rape or sexual abuse of young Penan girls in the Baram area by logging workers. Many of the survivors are minors.
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The nationwide outburst of anguish and sadness following the death of Teoh Beng Hock has been largely ignored by the mainstream media in Sarawak.
It is time all sarawakians and sabahans must work hand-in-hand to save life and uphold Justice and human right(10 December is world human right day--put up banners and have talks, seminars on this important day---to help Penan and many has been tortured and has been ignored by authority)
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Promises denounced as 'dam' lies
"We think they will cheat us. They said they will pay us, but actually we are kicked out from our land without compensation. And at the new place, we have to be in debt (for) our house. No food... and from where would we get our money?" said Jamis John, a woman from Kampung Bojong Pain.
Kampung Bojong Pain, Kampung Rejoi and Kampung Sait, 42km from Kuching, Sarawak, are to be submerged by the proposed giant Bengoh Dam, across the upper reaches of the Sarawak River.
NONEPeople from Kampung Semban, another village two hours' hike upriver, have also been told to move too, even though Semban will not be inundated by the dam. Semban's eviction has been linked to a feasibility study, already conducted, for a tourist resort overlooking the dam.
The Sarawak government is trying to evict 1,300 people from 199 families in these four villages. These communities will lose their ancestral native customary rights (NCR) lands. The authorities have promised to move them to a "development-oriented area" 10km away, called Medan Tun Razak.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/108521
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The death of a Penan mother
Justin Jusieh, a 25-year-old Penan man from a small, isolated settlement in upriver Sarawak, sat at the breakfast table and recounted, in a quiet voice, the death of his mother, Jari Lenau, 40.
“My mother was healthy until the middle of December 2007,” Justin said. “She started bleeding, as if she was having her monthly period, only the bleeding went on and on.
“She went to the nearest clinic at Long Lellang, half an hour away by boat. The nurse there examined her, but after she got home, the bleeding got worse.
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“Juni visited her social worker for the first time when she was seven months into her pregnancy,” a lawyer friend told me.
“She had just seen a doctor. Her doctor sent her to the social worker because Juni had no birth certificate, no identity card. Her father, Seman, had an IC, but her mother, Flora, didn't. Flora had been born far from the town, and she'd never been to the Registration Department.
the antidote article sarawak natives stories 120509 03“Flora and Juni went to the social worker's office, hoping they'd receive help to have their ICs done. The social worker, Ana, asked her to fill in some forms and gave them a small amount of money to help with the fare on the 'van sapu' (illegal taxis) to get home, and sent her away,” the lawyer explained.
He went on, “Juni had to keep going to hospital, because she'd suffered from epilepsy since she was a small child. She needed medicines to prevent seizures. She was a slow learner too, and had never finished primary school. She was 19, the oldest of seven siblings. She helped her mother around in their small home.
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some MORE:
BUT according news report ON 2009:
Government report confirms Penan girls were raped by loggers
15 September 2009
© Andy Rain/Nick Rain/Survival
The Malaysian government has released a report confirming that Penan women and girls as young as ten have been raped and sexually abused by logging company workers in Sarawak.
The report confirms the allegations made last year that Penan women were raped by loggers, despite high-level denials by government officials at the time of the revelations.
In October last year, when faced with the claims, the Chief Minister of Sarawak Abdul Taib Mahmud said they were ‘lies’ and an attempt at ‘sabotage’. Even after the government report was made public, Sarawak’s Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu, who is in charge of Penan affairs, questioned its credibility. In the Borneo Post newspaper he was quoted as saying, ‘There may be a report, but you must remember that negative NGOs were strongly behind it.’
The report was released last week, almost a year after allegations were made in the media about the rape of Penan girls. A government team visited a number of Penan communities last year to investigate the claims. The team found that, ‘allegations of sexual abuse of Penan girls and women by outsiders dealing with the Penan, including logging company workers and traders, are certainly true.’
Penan children are often dependent on the logging companies for transportation to and from school. Penan girls told the investigation team that it was common for logging camp workers to sexually abuse them while taking them to or from school.
According to the report, one girl told the government team that she was raped when she rode in a logging truck on her way to school. Another said she had two children after being raped by a worker who repeatedly broke into her room.
The publication of the report comes as hundreds of Penan are blocking roads in protest against logging and plantations on their land. The destruction of their forest robs the hunter-gatherer Penan of the animals and plants they eat and pollutes the rivers they fish in. Without the forest, many Penan have difficulty feeding their families.
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4940
WHY FROM ABOVE REPORT:
Government report confirms Penan girls were raped by loggers ON 15 September 2009
WHY WHY NO ANY ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN?????????
AN ALARMING PROBLEM SHOULD BE MADE KNOWN TO THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!
