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BALINGIAN - 3 August 2000: Tomorrow the Sibu High Court will deliver its decision on the application of Novelpac Puncakdana Plantation Sdn. Bhd., a Kuala Lumpur based company, for an injunction restraining the residents of 8 Iban longhouse communities in Sarawak central region from interfering with its activities to clear up the lands within its provisional lease area for the establishment of an oil palm plantation.

The affected Ibans communities have maintained that the land covered by the provisional lease granted to the company by the Sarawak government are their native customary land inherited from and occupied by them since time immemorial.

The plantation company has however alleged that the land within its said provisional lease are State Land and relied on an aerial map supplied by the Land and Survey Department which the company claimed does not show evidence of cultivation of the land in 1972.

However, the Ibans replied that aerial maps is not conclusive to rebut native customary rights claims over land in Sarawak because cultivation is not the only methods of acquiring rights over land in the State. They pointed out that rights can be also acquired by adat or customs of the natives or by occupation of the lands.

If the injunction is granted against the Ibans the effect would be that they would no longer have access to the said land and even their farms and crops within the area covered by the company's provisional lease. According to them, as they mainly depend on the said land for their daily sustenance, their livelihood would inevitably be adversely affected.

In a separate case, two days ago 3 other nearby Iban longhouses, namely, Rumah Digat, Rumah Megu and Rumah Kiai detained the bulldozers of another oil palm company, Kanowit Oil Palm Plantation Sdn. Bhd., after the company trespassed onto their customary lands.

At present, at least One third (1/3) of Sarawak's total land area have been alienated to various oil palm plantation companies which are mainly owned by Sarawak based logging companies and also plantation companies from West Malaysia. Ninety (90%) of the lands affected are the customary lands of the Sarawak indigenous populations.

Conflicts over land are on the rise and spreading throughout Sarawak and cases on human rights abuses have also been reported in many areas of the State.

On the 8th and 15th September, 2000, two cases in which the Ibans from six (6) longhouses in the Baram area (northern region of Sarawak) sued the police and General Operations Force Officials (para-military police) for wrongful arrests, malicious prosecutions and false imprisonment will be heard by the Miri Sessions Court. -BRIMAS