'ANDY' MUTANG FLEES MALAYSIA

panderson@gn.apc.org
Thu, 2 Apr 1992 12:53:00 PST

'ANDY' MUTANG FLEES MALASIA UNDER THREAT OF ARREST Terry Gould
SARAWAK, Malaysia, Mar.30 (ENS) - Anderson Mutang, 35, head of the
Sarawak Indigenous Peoples' Alliance, fled Malaysia Friday after
learning that the Sarawak government was planning to arrest and
charge him with "criminal intimidation and abettment of criminal
intimidation".

Antalai Sawing, Mutang's lawyer, said that "fear that Mutang will
urge the Penan people to set up new blockades to stop the logging
of their ancestral homeland," prompted the government's pending
charges.

Speaking from his secret santuary, Mutang said he would remain in
hiding until he determined how the government would proceed
against him. "I suffered much mental torture when I was in prison
last year and I do not wish to go through that experience again."

***** Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1992 *****