BASEL, Switzerland, March 9, 2011 (ENS) – Protests over timber corruption that has made a billionaire of the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and enriched his family at the expense of the state’s indigenous and other citizens have spilled over to the streets of San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa and London. A Swiss nonprofit organization is asking the law enforcement authorities in the United States to investigate what they allege is a murder on U.S. soil and illegally acquired assets stashed in the United States as well as other countries. Sarawak stretches for over 750 kilometers (465 miles) along the northeast coast of the island of Borneo. Once blanketed with highland and lowland tropical rainforests, over the past 30 years the rainforests have disappeared, driven by the demands of the logging industry. Malaysia’s deforestation rate is increasing faster than anywhere else in the world, but until now, facts about the people and companies responsible for deforesting Sarawak have been shrouded in secrecy. A new report released today by the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund exposes the Sarawak timber industry’s complex structure and its links to Abdul Taib Mahmud, who has been Sarawak’s Chief Minister since March 26, 1981. Elections will soon be held in Sarawak, likely within the next six weeks. In February, the nonprofit Bruno Manser Fund launched an international campaign against what the group calls “the blatant corruption and abuse of public funds” by Taib and his family and political associates. The organization, based in Basel, is named in honor of Swiss citizen Bruno Manser who disappeared in Sarawak while defending the rights of the indigenous nomadic Penan people. Manser was last seen in May 2000 in the isolated village of Bario, Sarawak; he was declared legally dead in 2005. The new report, “Development of global timber tycoons in Sarawak, East Malaysia – History and company profiles,” is authored by Daniel Faeh of the University of Bern’s Economic Geography Group. Faeh identifies “the specific politico-economic situation in Sarawak” as the main driver behind the state’s rapid deforestation, particularly the fact that Chief Minister Taib, who is also minister of planning and resource management, “has absolute control over the allocation of timber licences and logging concessions to himself, his allies, friends and family.” “As a result,” writes Faeh, “it is not surprising that the land claims of local indigenous groups have been systematically neglected.” … The Swiss NGO and its supporters have published a list of Taib’s “secret” foreign assets and are urging the governments of Australia, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, Hong Kong, Jersey, and the United Kingdom as well as Malaysia, to investigate the financial transactions of these 49 companies under their respective anti-corruption and anti-money-laundering legislations and to freeze all Taib family assets for later restitution to the people of Sarawak. …
Swiss NGO Links Los Angeles Killing to Timber Corruption in Malaysia
