SAVE Rivers

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BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL, SWITZERLAND 2nd October 2012 – For immediate release Leaked Resettlement Action Plan for natives to be displaced by Murum dam reveals the Sarawak government’s neglect of basic rights and fair compensation (MURUM, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA) A report by the Malaysian state government of Sarawak about the resettlement of over 1,500 natives has been leaked just a few months before the planned resettlement due to a mega-dam. The impoundment of the 944 MW Murum dam is meant to start in early 2013 and will flood almost 250km2 of forest and cause the displacement of six Penan and one Kenyah native communities. Violation of basic rights It verges on hypocrisy that the leaked Murum Resettlement Action Plan claims that “the main documents” concerning the construction of the dam and the resettlement are “to be made available to the public”, although this has obviously not been done so far. The affected communities have only received information about the conditions of their res...

Posted on October 3, 2012, Wednesday MIRI: The Penans of Pelieran-Danum, Murum, Belaga District, Kapit division want to present an open memorandum to top government leaders on the Murum hydroelectric power (HEP) dam project. A blockade was organised at the Murum HEP dam site last Wednesday to press for their rights. The seven-page memorandum was prepared with the help of the Peleiran-Murum Penan Affairs Committee (Pemupa) chaired by Surang Alung. Among others, it presented a list of Penan demands for compensation after a meeting of more than 300 villagers from Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu, Long Malim, and Long Jaik in Long Jai, Murum on Sept 25. They hoped to present the memorandum to the prime minister and chief minister to act on problems that cropped up after the project started in 2008. Murum HEP involves the construction of a RM3 billion 944-MW hydroelectric dam and is the first of 12 mega dams to be built on the Murum River, a tributary of the Balui R...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2 October 2012 MIRI: SAVE Rivers commends Land Development Minister James Masing on his admission that there is a “need for better communication between the implementers of the project and the people at the grassroots,” re: Penan blockade against the Murum dam, as reported in the Borneo Post on October 2nd, 2012. However, it is with regret that Masing’s admission for better communication, comes much too late for the Penan and Kenyah communities are already affected by the Murum dam as the construction started in mid-2008. The target for the completion of the project is by the end of 2013. Peter Kallang, Chairperson of SAVE Rivers, notes, “This is why we have been emphasizing on the need to abide by United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) that Malaysia has signed, whenever the government does any major project involving the rural communities. According to UNDRIP, the communities have the right to demand for free, prior, informed...

Posted on October 3, 2012, Wednesday MIRI: The Penans of Pelieran-Danum, Murum, Belaga District, Kapit division want to present an open memorandum to top government leaders on the Murum hydroelectric power (HEP) dam project. A blockade was organised at the Murum HEP dam site last Wednesday to press for their rights. The seven-page memorandum was prepared with the help of the Peleiran-Murum Penan Affairs Committee (Pemupa) chaired by Surang Alung. Among others, it presented a list of Penan demands for compensation after a meeting of more than 300 villagers from Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu, Long Malim, and Long Jaik in Long Jai, Murum on Sept 25. They hoped to present the memorandum to the prime minister and chief minister to act on problems that cropped up after the project started in 2008. Murum HEP involves the construction of a RM3 billion 944-MW hydroelectric dam and is the first of 12 mega dams to be built on the Murum River, a tributary of the Balui R...

by Peter Sibon, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on October 2, 2012, Tuesday Masing says lack of understanding cause of Penans’ hostility towards Murum Dam, calls for more dialogue KUCHING: The state government will explain in greater details to the Penan community affected by the construction of the Murum hydro-electric dam in Kapit Division so that they will understand the benefits of the project. Land Development Minister Tan Sri James Masing stressed that there was a need for better communication between the implementers of the project and the people at the grassroots. “I have made a recommendation to the steering committee to include Assistant Minister of Culture and Heritage Liwan Lagang to be part of the team which oversees the implementation of the project. “Liwan has vast experience working with the Penans in Murum even before he joined politics. “My recommendation to the steering committee is that we need to have a better communication system so that any change...

27 September 2012 Miri, Sarawak: Hundreds of Penans staged a blockade against Murum hydroelectric (HEP) dam project yesterday (26th Sept) calling the government to listen to their plights with regard to the construction of the dam project. The Penans set up the blockade on the access road to the dam at Seping River Bridge, about 40km from the Murum HEP dam project site. The Penans are from 8 villages, namely Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu and Long Malim, which are located upstream, and Long Peran and Long Jaik in the downstream of the dam project site. The Murum HEP will inundate and require the forced relocation of about 1,500 Penans as well as the 18 Kenyah-Badeng families in Long Umpa village near Long Malim in Danum River, the upper course of Murum River. At least 200 Penans are at the blockade site carrying placards and banners bearing slogan “We Want Justice”, We Demands Our Rights”, “Stop Murum Dam”, “Sarawak Energy (SEB) No Entry”, etc. Some of the P...

27 Sep 2012 This post is also available in: Iban , Malay Shaking hands on the agreement – David Crean, Chairman of Hydro-Tasmania seals the deal with Sarawak Hydro-Tasmania’s tantrums over the recent Dateline Australia film ‘Last Fontier’ have been exposed as entirely misleading. A report by Sarawak Energy Bhd has detailed how, contrary to denials, the dam-building company is engaged in a leading ‘co-development’ and ‘partnership’ role in the implementation of Taib’s devastating plans for the so-called Sarawak Corridor of Energy (SCORE). These involve 12 highly controversial dams that will flood huge swathes of the Borneo Jungle and destroy the lives of tens of thousands of indigenous people along with their cultures. Hydro-Tasmania’s key complaint has been that the programme “exaggerated” the company’s role in SCORE, when it claimed it was just acting as one of several consultants engaged by the commissioning body Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB). The company’s angry protests soon had the...

28 Sep 2012 This post is also available in: Iban , Malay Sarawak Energy – keep off our lands! The desperation of the Penan people who have lost their hunting grounds and are starving We can disclose that shocking revelations from a leaked report are what lie behind the massive road block at the Murum Dam site, where scores of lorries have been brought to a grinding halt by Penan tribes people. The impoverished hunter-gatherers mounted the desperate protest in response to learning key details of the resettlement and compensation plans, drawn up by the Government for when their homes are soon flooded by rising waters. The plans were disgracefully kept secret until they were leaked to Sarawak Report earlier this week. The secrecy was in defiance of international protocols, which require full consultation and disclosure to affected peoples before construction even begins. Murum itself was of course also kept secret during the first two years of the dam’s construction, during which time Ta...

BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL, SWITZERLAND 28th September 2012 – for immediate release 200 natives are blocking the construction material supply for Murum mega-dam until Norwegian manager and Sarawakian authorities are ready to meet them and give in to their demands (MURUM, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA) Early morning of 26th of September, 200 Penan and Kenyah women, men and children put up a blockade on the access road to the 944 MW Murum dam in the interior of Sarawak, located on the Malaysian part of Borneo island. They will only let the supply trucks pass their blockade, if the Norwegian CEO of Sarawak Energy, the agency in charge of the construction of the dam and electricity generation in Sarawak, and Sarawak’s authorities are willing to meet them at the blockade site and agree to their demands. 141m high Murum dam, under construction by China’s Three Gorges Corporation, affects at least 1,400 people from the ethnic groups of the Western Penan and the Kenyah and will start flooding almost 250km2...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 18 September 2012 Kuching, Sept 18th 2012 :  About 50 indigenous people from the Baram area delivered a petition of thousands of signatures to the Chief Minister of Sarawak today at Wisma Bapa Malaysia (State Secretariat building). The people were representing at least 18 longhouses from Upper and Middle Baram. The petitions are in protest of the plans to build a mega-dam which would flood half the size of Singapore . Thousands of Baram residents would be forced to move away from their ancestral lands, homes and farms, to accommodate the mega-dam. Affected resident, and President of JOAS (Jaringan Orang Asal seMalaysia or Indigenous Peoples’ Network of Malaysia), Thomas Jalong of Long Anap, Baram views with grave concern of the planned construction of mega-dam because of its potential adverse implications, particularly on the rights, livelihoods and future of the indigenous people of the area. “The dam would inevitably submerge our a...

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10:37AM Sep 19 2012 Malaysiakini.com Sekumpulan kira-kira 50 Orang Asal dari Baram mengadakan protes di hadapan bangunan sekretariat negeri Sarawak di Kuching semalam, membantah projek mega empangan yang akan menenggelamkan rumah panjang mereka. Mereka daripada 18 rumah panjang di Baram Hulu dan Tengah juga menyerahkan petisyen yang mengandungi lebih 1,000 tandatangan kepada Pejabat Ketua Menteri Sarawak. Petisyen itu menyuarakan tentangan mereka terhadap rancangan membina empangan mega di Baram yang akan membanjiri kawasan tersebut seluas separuh saiz Singapura, serta menenggelamkan tanah nenek moyang mereka, rumah dan ladang-ladang di situ. Dalam satu kenyataan semalam, Preiden Jaringan Orang Asal seMalaysia (Joas), Thomas Jalong, yang berasal dari Long Anap, Baram, berkata empangan itu akan menjejaskan kehidupan penduduk asal tempatan. "Empangan akan pasti menenggelamkan tanah nenek moyang dengan lebih 20,000 penduduk dan dalam proses itu, ia akan mengakibatkan kami kehilang...

8 Sep 2012 This post is also available in: Iban , Malay A recent Dateline Australia programme, Last Frontier, addressed some issues of indisputable public interest and concern in both Tasmania and Sarawak. It examined policies in those countries that will affect the lives of tens of thousands of people and destroy some of the world’s remaining forest ecosystems. In short Dateline investigated the plans to flood central Sarawak with no less than 12 highly controversial dams that will destroy the rainforest and displace countless indigenous communities. Read more at  http://www.sarawakreport.org/2012/09/business-brawn-over-business-brain-old-fashioned-methods-in-tasmania-should-backfire/

Joseph Tawie  | September 13, 2012 Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's Sarawak is set to host the most number of smelting plants in the country. KUCHING: The state government under Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud is turning Sarawak into a ‘smelting pot’ with the influx of smelting plants like manganese and ferrosilicon, polycrystalline silicon, and manganese ferro alloy into Bintulu. Sarawak DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen claims that projects were “not beneficial” to the locals and in fact were detrimental to the people and environment. “It will not benefit the common Sarawakians, such plants have devastating effects on the health of the people and on the environment. “We have heard about Press Metal (in Mukah) causing strange illnesses to the people and the surrounding areas,” he said. Chong who is the MP for Bandar Kuching and Kota Sentosa assemblyman was commenting on a statement made by Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, Minister of Industrial Development on foreign direct investments to Saraw...