>From cdp:rainforest Tue Jul 23 20:21:32 1991
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 91 20:21:32 PDT
From: NativeNet@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Newsgroups: rainfor.general
Reply-To: nn.rfgeneral@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Errors-To: nn-bounce@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Subject: Press release on Sarawak Arrests
For Immediate Release- Contact for Photos and Video:
July 24, 1991 Mike Mease, (406) 549-77632
General information contact:
Pamela Wellner, (415) 398-4404
Foreign Environmentalists Imprisoned in Sarawak, Malaysia
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International Actions to Save Borneo's Tropical Rainforests Intensify
MIRI, SARAWAK (July 24, 1991) Eight foreign environmental
activists from five countries were given jail sentences for
criminal trespass in Sarawak, Malaysia on July 20th. They
were arrested after they chained themselves to logging cranes
and were unjustly held in jail for over a week before formal
charges were pressed.
The activists are from Australia, W. Germany, England,
Switzerland and the United States. The two U.S. citizens are
John Kreilick and Deborah Witkin.
Five of the arrestees pled guilty and have been sentenced to
60 days in jail. Three others pleaded not guilty and have
been released on bail. By attempting to halt exports of
tropical timber, destined forcountries such as Japan and the
U.S. the activists drew worldwide attention to the continued
destruction of Borneo's rainforests.
The activists held their protests in solidarity with 400 Penan
indigenous rainforest people of Sarawak who are currently
blockading logging roads in a last ditch attempt to save their
forest homeland. The Penan, some of which have a nomadic
lifestyle, have said it is only a matter of months before
logging operations destroy the forest that they depend on for
sustenance and cultural livelihood.
The official demands put forth by the environmentalists were
an immediate moratorium on trade in tropical timber from
primary forests, and that the human rights of the native
peoples, such as the right to their customary land and their
traditional lifestyle, be recognized in law and respected by
the Sarawak and Malaysian governments.
In past few weeks international actions in support of Sarawak's
forest and indigenous peoples have increased. These actions
include a timber ship blockade in Nantes, France, a port
blockade in Bremen, Germany and protests at the Malaysian
embassies in the Hague and London. Also in London, at the 393
site of the Group of Seven (G7) meetings, environmentalists
staged demonstrations and civil disobedience to draw attention
to the G7 countries' tropical timber imports from Sarawak.
Together the G7 countries import a total of 60% of Sarawak's
wood.
Native protests against logging began in 1987, but have
intensified in the last few months because there have been no
attempts by the Sarawak government or timber industry to stop
logging on native traditional lands or to curtail logging in
primary forests. In fact, even after the International
Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) conservatively recommended
that Sarawak cut back its annual imports of 13 million cubic
meters to 9 million, Sarawak has increased logging rates by
40% to 18 million cubic meters. The ITTO has estimated that
Sarawak has less than 10 years left of "timber production
forest" at the current rates of harvest.
Sarawak is one of the few tropical countries that still
exports raw logs. Timber from Sarawak is mostly exported to
Japan for use as disposable concrete forms. The timber is
also imported by the U.S. and other industrialized nations for
use as inexpensive doorskins and plywood.
Sarawak, like other parts of Borneo, has one of the most
biologically diverse and oldest rainforests in the world.
These forests are being liquidated for short term interests
that benefit a few timber tycoons while indigenous people are
forced off their land and subject to increased poverty and
life threatening diseases. If current logging rates continue
the world will lose one of the most beautiful and
irreplaceable ecosystems in existence.