Malaysia says no report on missing rainforest campaigner's whereabouts
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
December 17, 2001
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Government authorities have no information yet about the whereabouts of a Swiss activist believed missing in a Borneo rainforest, a state official said Monday.
Police in Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state began investigations last week into the disappearance of Bruno Manser, whose relatives and friends claim entered Malaysia clandestinely in May 2000. "We do not know whether he is really in the country or not," Sarawak tourism minister Abang Johari Abang was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama. "If he is, then he is entering illegally and his disappearance will not be within our responsibility."
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 Penans, believed to be the world's last nomadic rainforest tribe, to turn against the government.
Manser 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 infuriated the Malaysian government when he defied the ban against him in 1999 by landing a glider near the residence of Sarawak's chief minister. He was immediately deported.
The activist is believed to have returned last year, entering Sarawak on foot. He is known to have gotten as far as the tiny settlement of Long Semirang, but was not seen again after leaving there.