Serious questions are being raised on the integrity of police investigations into allegations of rape on Penan girls and women by logging company workers that was recently exposed in a government report.

NONEAccording to the Penan Support Group, a major obstacle was the insistence by the police to work with the Resident's Office and the logging companies while conducting investigations.

The Penans do not trust both the Resident's Office and logging companies and they are seen to be in cahoots with each other but according to Penan Support Group coordinator Colin Nicholas, the police seem oblivious of this.

"To entrust the Resident's Office to provide personnel such as interpreters and to depend on the logging companies for transport, as suggested at the meeting (with NGOs), is as good as saying you are not interested in getting to the truth of the matter," said Nicholas.

Nicholas was referring to the Aug 17 meetings with the Sarawak police who were suppose to form a police-NGO joint investigation effort.

This joint investigation effort was agreed by inspector-general of police Musa Hassan, when he met several NGOs in Jan 2 to discuss the Penan situation.

Sincerity in doubt

During the Aug 17 meeting, Nicholas said the police had allocated RM100,000 to faciltate the joint-investigation mission, but the funds were only for the force and the NGOs had to fund themselves if they wanted to be part of the mission.

NONE"In short, we got the impression that they did not want the NGOs to be involved in the investigation.

"Our role was only to make sure the Penan victims and witnesses turned up at the place and date of interview as appointed by the police.

"The official written reply from the CID director (Bakri Mohd Bakri Zinin) dated Aug 27 suggested that this was so," said Nicholas.

Given the circumstances, Nicholas said the NGOs are suspecting the sincerity of the police in investigating sexual abuse cases among Penans.

Yesterday, Bakri issued a statement alleging that witnesses were unwilling to cooperate.

The long-standing claim of sexual abuse of Penan women made headlines last week after a the special committee set up by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to investigate the allegations published a report.

The Penan are a nomadic tribe, native to Sarawak, whose existence is under threat by widespread deforestation.

As their numbers are small, their plight is generally ignored by the government.