KUCHING: The Sarawak police have launched an investigation into the shocking allegations that Penan girls were raped by timber workers in Sarawak.

Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mohmad Salleh said yesterday that they had started their investigation this week, although they had not received any official reports or complaints.

“We are trying to identify the areas and victims involved,” he said when contacted by The Borneo Post.

The allegation surfaced in a report by The Star on Monday which said students, who are boarders in two secondary schools in Middle Baram, were victims of sexual abuse by logging company workers after they hitched rides with them to or back from school.

It was reported that a 16-year-old student from long Kawi became pregnant after being raped while returning to her boarding school last year.

The girl, who gave birth recently, claimed that she was hitching a ride with a logging company vehicle back to her school, SMK Long Lama.

But when the driver reached the logging camp, he refused to continue the journey to the school and instead dragged her to some bushes behind the camp where she was raped.

Land Development Minister Dato Sri Dr James Masing told The Borneo Post yesterday that a full police investigation into the allegations must be carried out.

“They may be Penans but they are still human beings. These speculations will continue if we do not get to the bottom of this allegation. It will certainly not be good for our government,” he said.

When told that a non-government organisation (NGO) could be behind the allegations, Masing, who is Parti Rakyat Sarawak president, said that was not important.

“Regardless of who made the allegation, we must find out if there is any truth in it. We must settle this once and for all,” he said.

Three weeks ago, a media release by an NGO, Bruno Manser Foundation, charged that workers from two timber companies were preying on Penan women in the various settlements within the companies’ operational areas, and targeting female students who relied on the companies’ transportation service to get to school.

Meanwhile, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak yesterday urged the police from Bukit Aman to step in, to investigate the case.

State PKR legal advisor See Chee How said the matter should not just be just left to Sarawak police because from the comments by the authority, the party was not convinced that an impartial investigation could take place.

“The police chief in Marudi made a lot of comments (in the New Straits Times, Oct 5), like he went in the Penan area and see a lot of babies looking like Chinese, even Eurasian and there was a lot of marriage between loggers and the locals. We don’t know whether these are true.

“Don’t make all these prejudice comments. One has to be impartial when doing investigation, so we urge Bukit Aman to step in and send a special team to investigate the matter,” he told reporters yesterday.

He revealed that this sexual abuse case was not the first of its kind to be reported. In 1994, a 12 year-old girl had lodged such report to the authority in Kuching and Miri but until today, there was no result.

In 2000, a group of Penan representatives once more brought up the same case to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam). All these were known by the authority but nothing was done until today.

“That is why we take this seriously,” he said.

He added that for cases where girls aged 16 and below were sexually abused, the police had the right to investigate such allegations without a police report.

He said the allegations involving the Penan girls were attracting a lot of international and national attention.

Yesterday, some 26 non-governmental organisation had gathered for a joint press conference at the Bar Council office to voice their concern over the matter.

State PKR deputy chairman Baharuddin Datuk Mokhsen also said the party was appealing to Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders to change their attitude and not jump to conclusion without investigating.

He challenged a state minister, who dismissed the allegations of rape on Penan women, to resign if the sexual abuse report was proven true.

Baharuddin stressed that some NGOs had no politically vested interest at all.

He said they just wanted to help the downtrodden in the rural areas. And as for the party not everything was to score political points.

“Instead of suggesting to investigate the report straight away, he (the minister) just dismissed it. We feel ‘disgusted’ with this response made by a senior leader.

“At least have the decency to find out what is actually happening on the ground.

“We just want the authority to look into the matter. If it is true, rehabilitate the victim,” he said.

On Tuesday, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said her ministry had set up a temporary task force to investigate the allegations.

She said the ministry would be working closely with NGOs such as the Women’s Centre for Change (WCC) and Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) and the Sarawak government as well as the police.