Malaysian police say no trace of missing rainforest campaigner
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
December 19, 2001
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian police said Wednesday they have found no trace of a Swiss activist believed to have gone missing in a Borneo rain forest.
Mohd Yusoff Jaafar, police commissioner of eastern Sarawak state, said that a local team investigating Bruno Manser's disappearance found no proof that he had died, was murdered or lost near Penan tribe settlements. "Nonetheless, the police are not closing the case and will continue our investigations should we receive reports from any parties on Manser," Yusoff was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama.
Police began investigations last week into Manser's case, more than a year after he was said to have entered Sarawak clandestinely in May 2000.
Sarawak's tourism minister Abang Johari Abang said Monday that state authorities did not know whether Manser was truly in Malaysia. He said that if Manser had entered the country illegally, the government would not be held responsible for his disappearance.
Manser was banned from Sarawak after he led a campaign in the state to stop logging in the rainforests. Authorities accused him of instigating the Penan, believed to be the world's last nomadic rainforest tribe, to turn against the government.
The activist lived with the Penan tribe from 1984 to 1990. The group complains that widespread logging has devastated its traditional lifestyle. The government wants to bring them into the mainstream, offering homes with running water, schools and work.
Manser is believed to have entered Sarawak on foot last year. He is known to have gotten as far as the tiny settlement of Long Semirang, but was not seen again after leaving there.