FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT IN YOKAHAMA
The 13th session of the ITTO has now entered its 3rd day of
discussion. NGO activities have been quite diverse - with a
definite distinction in roles being played. One of the most
significant turn of events has been the confiscation of Thomas
Jalong's passport, without any explanation by the Malaysian
authorities, thus preventing him from leaving the country. He is
the leader of , Sarawak office of Sahabat Alam Malaysia and a
member of the Kenyah tribe and was accredited as an NGO observer
at the ITTO meeting. There have been continuous appeals on his
behalf - but to this date there has been no explanation for this
action by the Malaysian government.
The main events started last week to mark the renegotiation of
the ITTA (International Tropical Timber Agreement). The Friends
of the Earth 17 metre inflatable chainsaw was part of a demon-
stration in front of the ministry of Foreign Affairs and later
was taken to the headquarters of the Mitsubishi corporation.
Around 30 people, including Indigenous people from Nicaragua,
Panama, PNG and the Philippines plus representatives from Austra
lian, American, Canadian and British NGOs - gathered in support
of this demonstration.
At the opening of the ITTO meeting on the 16th - the chainsaw
reappeared at the front of the conference building. Once again,
indigenous peoples, representatives and concerned citizens
voiced their opinions. Inside the conference centre, Simon Coun-
cil of Friends of the Earth presented the NGO statement - which
had a strong focus on Thomas Jalongs case and the total failure
of any attempts to reduce the rate of logging - or institute
sustainable logging practices in the Malaysian State of Sarawak.
d Pam Welner from the Rainforest Action Network held up a
sign while the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Taib Mahmud, was
speaking in the opening plenum of the ITTC, which said "Where
is Thomas Jalong of Sarawak?". Armed police stood on constant
guard at the conference centre while the Chief Minister attended
the meeting.
In the evening of the 16th, 3 NGOs (Rainforest Information Cen-
tre, Permaculture network and a JATAN member) intended to perform
some theatre at the evening reception. They meant to illustrate
the convenient bond between Japan and Malaysia in the continuing
devastation of Sarawaks' forests by parading through the recep-
tion as a wedding procession. They were to be driving a cardboard
bulldozer (with a sign saying "just married" on the back). Fol-
lowing them would be the ITTO with a black cloak and sickle -
throwing sawdust instead of confetti...Other NGOs agreed to this
action - with a representative of WWF Malaysia suggesting that
instead of focussing on Malaysia - the signs should say just
"timber consumers" and "timber producers".
Unfortunately, a few minutes before they were to start a person
from the ITTO secretariat informed us that if we were to carry
out any demonstration in the building, the NGO room and facili-
ties would be withdrawn. Any form of demonstration (this includes
walking inside the building in a tree costume - would risk the
eviction of all NGOs. All other NGOs present unanimously agreed
that it was not worth the risk - so, regretfully, the perform-
ance was canceled.
The position of NGOs to the whole ITTO proceedings has also been
varied. The Sarawak Campaign Committee has boycotted the ITTO
altogether. This was already considered some time ago - but this
position became even stronger with the confiscation of Thomas
Jalong's passport. Friends of the Earth and the Rainforest Action
Network (USA) are presenting a stronger position on the failure
of the ITTO within the proceedings - and the main producers of
the NGO newspaper, "ECO" - and other NGOs are attempting to
negotiate and affect the positions of international delegates
through lobbying.
It would be fair to say that the participation for the first time
of representatives from WWF Malaysia has had an impact on the
proceedings. Their position is that Malaysia should not be a main
focus - that lobbying should instead focus on the role on consum-
er countries - especially in pushing for temperate timbers to be
included in the proceedings. There has been editing of articles
(on the insistence of WWF) submitted to "ECO" to reflect this
stance. This has been seen with some concern from other NGOs
participating or not in the ITTO sessions.
Today, the Sarawak Campaign Committee organised a demonstration -
and indigenous representatives presented a letter to the Malay-
sian Embassy in Tokyo regarding the confiscation of Thomas Ja-
long's passport. They were physically prevented from entering the
vigil outside the embassy for 2 hours. Placards and constant
singing communicated a demand for an explanation, and an
apology for the violation of human rights (freedom to travel
across borders) directed towards an innocent representative of
an indigenous tribe and a legitimate environmental organisation.
While only one representative, Kazuko Matsue, was permitted
inside the building to present the letter - a brief interchange
occurred between an official of the embassy, Jeannette Ribaya
(Philippines) and Anja Light (Australia). Among his comments were
the statements: "Why don't you come to Sarawak to protest?", "He
is a Malaysian citizen - therefore we have the control of this
matter", "I am an indigenous person too!". Amongst their response
they said: "Noone has control of anyone else", "He is a human
being before he is a Malaysian" and "If you are truly an
indigenous person then you would not accept this miscarriage of
justice".
END