Police officers working on behalf of Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau are continuing to intimidate, attack and detain landholders trying to protect their land against illegal logging in the Pomio District of East New Britain, according to reports from the area.
This is despite an order from Police Commissioner Gari Baki that police should not be permanently deployed to logging camps.
Senator Patrick Leahy is the most senior member of the United States Congress
Two United States Senators, Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Jeff Merkley, have written to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill calling for action to end the SABL land grab and illegal logging.
On November 4th, the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, stood in Parliament and told the nation the SABL land grab was at an end, the unlawful leases were being cancelled and the illegal logging stopped.
The Prime Minister has again announced the government is cancelling controversial SABL leases and returning the land to its customary owners.
“I am pleased to say that all the SABL leases to be cancelled, instruction has now gone to the Lands Dept and as of today (last Friday) I can assure you that leases are now being cancelled”– see story below.
Police stationed at logging camps in the Pomio district of East New Britain are continuing to intimidate and threaten landowners protesting against illegal SABL leases and wide spread logging.
Logging on New Hanover: "This is our customary land. Why would they do this to us?"
New Ireland Provincial Government has sent in armed police to defend illegal logging and road clearing operations on New Hanover island. Local people have been engaged in a long struggle to defend their land and reclaim what is rightfully theirs from the foreign logging companies.
Under the law, indigenous people own the land they have traditionally lived on and used. But across Papua New Guinea, communities like those of John Aini and Paul Pavol have seen their land taken without their consent through the abuse of Special Business and Agriculture Leases, or SABLs.
Paul Pavol, with MP Gary Juffa, at a protest outside the Rainforest Summit in Sydney
Mr. Paul Pavol, from the Pomio District of East New Britain, has been awarded the Alexander Soros Foundation Award for Environmental and Human Rights Activism at a ceremony in New York city.
