Bruno Manser Fonds
Heuberg 25
4051 Basel
Switzerland
phone +41 61 261 94 74
fax +41 61 261 94 73
updated 2001-01-31
March 30th, 1999
Press Release
Bruno Manser in deportation arrest
The report that Bruno Manser has already been deported to Switzerland is false. According to information from the Swiss embassy in Kuala Lumpur Manser is in custody under the Malaysian immigration authorities. He is fine and should be deported as soon as possible.
|
Look also at the backgound
informations and the Photo
album
|
The police assured the Penan they would obtain a meeting with the Chief Minister within the coming days, whereupon they let themselves be brought back to their hotel. As the Penan have sought a dialogue with Chief Minister Taib Mahmud for years they were very satisfied with the police's promise.
According to newest information, however, the Penan are being held under arrest in their hotel. Several police officers refuse access to visitors. The reasons for their arrest are unknown. According to information from journalists the police are planning to deport the Penan back into their territory by land as they are attracting a lot of attention in Kuching.
Everything indicates that the Penan will be dismissed one more time with empty promises and that the aim of Bruno Manser's action would not be fulfilled: namely creating a dialogue between the rainforest people, their survival acutely threatenend by the huge timber company Samling, and the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud who distributes the logging licenses for Sarawak's forests.
The Penan are at present being isolated at the Hotel Goodwood Inn in Kuching. Tel (0060)082 244 862; Fax (0060)082 235 690.
Yesterday the Swiss environmental and human rights activist Bruno Manser was arrested together with 11 Penan nomads after a spectacular action in Kuching, Sarawak, in front of the house of the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. This deed was meant to draw attention to the desperate situation of the rainforest people.
During the weeks prior to this action a professional film team made a documentary on the Penan, the merciless destruction of the unique habitat as well as human rights violations by the Malaysian timber industry. The film appear shortly.