Author: earthfirst

26th Octo­ber Anti-dam pro­tes­tors, who on Wednes­day put up block­ades at two roads lead­ing to Sarawak’s next hydro­elec­tric dam near Long Lama in Baram, have warned state elec­tric­i­ty provider Sarawak Ener­gy Bhd (SEB) to remove its con­struc­tion machin­ery from near­by Long Naah with­in three days.

The pro­tes­tors claimed that the pro­posed site for the dam was on their native cus­tom­ary rights (NCR) land.

The machin­ery had been trans­port­ed to the area to pre­pare the con­struc­tion of a 1200 megawatt (MW) dam that would dis­place up to 20,000 indige­nous Kenyah, Kayan and Penans. The dam will also flood a rain­for­est area of 400sq km.

Envi­ron­men­tal group Save Rivers Net­work and pro­tes­tors con­front­ed a group of 30 work­ers who were con­duct­ing rock test­ing activ­i­ties at Long Naah.

The group said the work­ers were told to pack up and leave the native land imme­di­ate­ly.

“The work­ers tried to nego­ti­ate but were told in no uncer­tain terms that there was no need for fur­ther nego­ti­a­tions as the com­mu­ni­ties reject­ed the dam project.”

Save also said that a group of vil­lagers had set up camp at the pro­posed dam site to mon­i­tor the with­draw­al of the work­ers.

The lat­est block­ades added pres­sure on the gov­ern­ment ahead of a key UN meet­ing in Gene­va on Malaysia’s human rights record where UN mem­ber states urged Putra­jaya to respect the rights of the natives.

The UPR process pro­vides the oppor­tu­ni­ty for all UN mem­ber states to state what action they have tak­en to improve the human rights sit­u­a­tions in their coun­tries and to ful­fil their human rights oblig­a­tions. Yesterday’s ses­sion rep­re­sent­ed the sec­ond review of Malaysia, the first being in 2009.

Sarawak deputy state sec­re­tary Datuk Ose Murang was in the Malaysian del­e­ga­tion to Gene­va, Switzer­land.

Mean­while, SEB chief exec­u­tive offi­cer Datuk Torstein Dale Sjotveit, has said he would now like to hear from the “very vocal NGOs and action groups cur­rent­ly in Gene­va, and the organ­i­sa­tion that nom­i­nat­ed Sarawak Ener­gy for the Pub­lic Eye award”.

The NGO that nom­i­nat­ed SEB for the Pub­lic Eye award is the Swiss envi­ron­men­tal group, the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF).

The award hon­ours the most despi­ca­ble and shame­ful com­pa­ny of the year – com­pa­nies with a track record of human rights vio­la­tions, envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion and exploita­tion of their work­ers or involve­ment in cor­rup­tion.

BMF said they nom­i­nat­ed SEB due to its gross dis­re­gard for the envi­ron­ment, the indige­nous peo­ple and mas­sive cor­rup­tion linked to the project.

The win­ner would be picked dur­ing the 2014 World Eco­nom­ic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzer­land in Jan­u­ary.

“We would love to hear from the NGOs on how they pro­pose the state deploy trans­for­ma­tion­al projects that can ele­vate all Sarawakians and lift per capi­ta income across the board if not through hydro­elec­tric projects,” Sjotveit said. – Octo­ber 25, 2013.

24th Octo­ber The Karen Nation­al Union (KNU) in South­ern Bur­ma has sus­pend­ed a coalmine from oper­at­ing in the Pawk­lo area, east of Dawei.

The KNU stopped the mine after lis­ten­ing to the demands local vil­lagers made to the polit­i­cal organ­i­sa­tions dis­trict lead­ers.

The KNU Mer­gui-Tavoy Dis­trict 16th Con­gress that fin­ished on the 19 Octo­ber decid­ed that the coal mine in Tha Nay Kler vil­lage area should stop oper­at­ing after KNU town­ship rep­re­sen­ta­tives pushed for its clo­sure.

P’doh Saw Beel­er, chair­man of KNU Mer­gui-Tavoy Dis­trict told Karen News.

“We con­sid­er the vil­lagers demands request­ing the sus­pen­sion of coal min­ing in the Paw Klo area. We will time to inves­ti­gate the issue and talk and lis­ten to local peo­ple about their con­cerns.”

The KNU per­mit grant­ed to a Thai com­pa­ny East Star has been sus­pend­ed, but sources claim the com­pa­ny still has a grant issued by the Myan­mar gov­ern­ment.

East Star is a joint ven­ture with May Flower, a Burmese owned com­pa­ny, that was grant­ed a 25-year con­ces­sion by the gov­ern­ment to mine for coal in the Paw Klo area.

Until the recent cease­fire between the Bur­ma Army and the KNU, the Paw Klo area was a con­flict zone – it is still under the con­trol of the KNU. The com­pa­ny received per­mis­sion from the KNU to mine in 2011. The KNU agree­ment states the com­pa­ny must renew its per­mit every year.

The KNU per­mit lim­its large-scale coal min­ing to a 60-acre area and states that the com­pa­ny is only allowed to mine out­side vil­lage areas to avoid dam­age to farm­land, water­ways and the envi­ron­ment.

Vil­lagers in the Paw Klo area protest­ed against the com­pa­ny and alleged that the min­ing has destroyed their land and has had adverse impacts on vil­lage water sources. Vil­lagers claim that they fear the pol­lut­ed drink­ing water could have a neg­a­tive impact on their future health.

Vil­lagers in Paw Klo, sub­mit­ted a let­ter of com­plaint on Sep­tem­ber 2 urg­ing the KNU to stop coal min­ing in Tha Nay Kler vil­lage.

The let­ter sub­mit­ted on Sep­tem­ber 2 to the KNU Mer­gui-Tavoy dis­trict office states that, “The East Star Com­pa­ny has failed to fol­low the agree­ment made between the KNU and vil­lagers that it [com­pa­ny] will pro­tect against dam­age of the envi­ron­ment and would not harm local lands and peo­ples’ liveli­hoods.”