Ongoing Threat of Forced Eviction: Iban Traditional Community Confronting Bulldozers

Akira Harada, Representative Director

JATAN (Japan Tropical Forest Action Network)

On May 4, 2025, an international human rights NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a field report titled Facing the Bulldozers: Iban Indigenous Resistance to the Timber Industry in Sarawak, Malaysia. Subsequently, to see how Rumah Jeffery community fared, JATAN visited the area in August of the same year, guided by Mr. Matek Geram of SADIA Mukah.

State government notice ordering forced eviction of Rumah Jeffery

About a 5-hour drive from Balingian, where Mr. Geram's longhouse is located, brought us to a bridge over the river locally known as Sungai Belawit. About two and a half years ago, when Mr. Geram guided a Japanese trading company wishing to inspect the situation of communities around Anap Mput FMU, it seems they could drive all the way to Rumah Jeffrey. However, currently, the road beyond this point is impassable by car because Zedtee Company has not renewed the repair work. Descending from the bridge to the riverbank, villagers were already waiting with boats prepared. However, low water levels made boat travel difficult. Most of the journey involved wading across the riverbed.

We arrived in about an hour and a half from the bridge. We were promptly welcomed with a guest reception ceremony (“miring ngalu”) presided over by customary law (adat) chief Nyulang Imbang and longhouse headman (tuai rumah) Jeffery Nang. The longhouse of Rumah Jeffery is home to seven households and 50 people. Throughout our visit, it seemed filled with a rich, contented atmosphere, constantly alive with lively conversation among the residents and cheerful laughter of children. The farmland stretched out, dotted with coffee trees bearing fresh fruit, and fields of pepper and corn awaiting harvest. The neatly weeded and organized vegetable gardens clearly showed the residents' daily, meticulous care.

Zedteey's "Response"

However, for the longhouse people who sustain an autonomous livelihood using limited resources, their daily reality also includes the inescapable awareness of the presence of public authority demanding forced eviction. The eviction notice issued by the Sarawak Forestry Department to Rumah Jeffrey on October 14, 2022, NOTIS PENGOSONGAN DI KAWASAN ANAP PROTECTED FOREST, casts a dark shadow over people's minds and lives even now, long after its deadline passed—"Until now, they are still there, but the eviction order remains valid and can be enforced at any time". This notice is nothing short of a threat, blatantly disregarding human rights, the right to livelihood, and the right to housing protected by international human rights law, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and international human rights conventions that prohibit forced eviction “regardless of the affected people's ownership or land tenure status.”

IT HAS BEEN FOUND that you and your party have occupied/trespassed in Anap Protected Forests area, Tatau by erecting a longhouse structure and carrying out agricultural activities. THIS is an offense under section 26 of  Forests Ordinance 2015 (Cap.71), and the offense may be prosecuted under the following provisions of the same Ordinance. PLEASE TAKE NOTE that you and your party are required to vacate, demolish, and remove all structures, crops, and any property belonging to you within the area concerned within THIRTY (30) days from the date of receipt of this notice. Failure by the owner to take the above action will result in legal action being taken against the owner and the owner's party without further notice. (Translated by JATAN)

Zedtee submitted a response dated February 25, 2025, to HRW's inquiry titled “Re: Rumah Jeffery, Anap Muput FMU and Anap Belawit Management Area”*. The response is available on Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) website. The company repeatedly emphasizes the legitimacy of their operations and management in  Anap Muput Forest Management Unit: AMFMU) and Anap Belawit Management Area (ABMA), including LPF/0039. They also accuse the residents of logging within protected forests, alleging violations of Section 26 of  Forests Ordinance 2015. The statements make there are vastly different from the claims of residents fearful of the threat posed by Zedtee's development activities on indigenous customary land.

*While the HRW report states that "Neither Zedtee nor Shin Yang had replied at the time of publication", the BHRRC website posted a response from Zedtee on May 29, dated February 25, 2025.

Zedtee was guilty of a lapse in supervision to allow Jeffery and a co-worker while under the employment of Zedtee to commandeer a logging tractor for clearing the site at Sungai Sepulau without permission from Zedtee or authorisation from FDS [Forest Department Sarawak] during the period of "Movement Control Order" 2020-2021 [lockdown by Malawian government to control COVID-19 pandemic]. His action against Zedtee was tantamount to theft and the clearing in Anap PF [Protects Forests] contravened Section 26 of Forests Ordinance 2015.  [JATAN notes in brackets]

While acknowledging management failures, Zedtee's behavior, which seems to portray themselves as a victim, reveals a cunning attempt to frame the residents as criminals. Indeed, upon receiving Zedtee's report of “unlawful occupation,” the Forestry Department issued the aforementioned notice, accepting Zedtee's claim at face value.

The HRW report records testimony from Mr. Nang,  longhouse headman, during a visit by Zedtee's forest manager to the longhouse in May 2022.

According to Jeffery Nang, the village chief of Rumah Jeffery, in May 2022 Zedtee’s forest manager visited their longhouse. Nang said that the forest manager told him of the company’s plan to log the area but promised compensation in the form of a paved access road and water pipes for the village. In addition, he said each family in the community could mark five trees that Zedtee would spare from logging operations.

However, in their response, Zedtee criticizes the arguments presented by the longhouse head.

In fact, his [Mr. Nang’s] claims of offer by Zedtee "... in the form of a paved access road and water pipes for the village... and each family could mark five trees that Zedtee would not cut if the logging was allowed to proceed" were his demands based on imagination and perceived rights or privileges from their clearing and occupation of the duly constituted PFE [Permanent Forest Estate] of Anap PF under our watch. [JATAN notes in brackets]

Unignorable political power imbalance that creates "illegal squatters"

Another claim in Zedtee's response that cannot be overlooked is the denial of the indigenous status of Rumah Jeffery community. During our August visit, residents including Headman Nang testified that they had resided in the area since around 1930s. Prior to that, their ancestors lived in Entabai, located near Sibu. They then traveled by boat to Kapit and reached this area on foot. However, Zedtee's response states that the earliest settlement of an Iban community in ABMA was no earlier than 1964. This discrepancy in settlement timing relates to the land classification under Sarawak's Land Code. The Land Code defines "Native Customary Land" as land where Native Customary Rights (NCR) were legally established before January 1, 1958. In other words, "Native Customary Land" cannot, in principle, be established after January 2, 1958. Zedtee asserts that the Native Customary Rights claimed by the Rumah Jeffery cannot exist under the law.

Zedtee's stance of not recognizing Rumah Jeffery's indigenous status is well expressed in the following discriminatory remarks --- "Jeffery followed a well-known tactic to clear land and claim the surrounding high forests as "Native Territorial Domain" (NTD commonly known in Iban as "Pulau Galau and Pemakai Menoa") to seek compensation from the forest manager".

Where does the "conflict timber" go?

Forced eviction of Rumah Jeffrey would clearly constitute a significant breach of international human rights conventions. With EUDR (EU Deforestation Regulation) set to be enforced from the end of this year, timber-related companies are required to properly implement human rights due diligence. A huge pile of wood products including plywood sourced from Anap Mput FMU reach the Japanese market. Timber harvested even from LPFs where clear-cutting is permitted could potentially be used as raw material for products including wood pellets. Recipient companies should verify their procurement practices by conducting on-site inspections at their own responsibility■